NaNoWriMo: We’re Down To The Wire, Part 1

Less than one week until NaNoWriMo 2011 begins.  Am I panicking?

Yes.

This will be my fourth nano in a row.  I haven’t won yet, although I got pretty close in 2008 and 2009 (I completely tanked last year). I’m still undecided on this year’s project.  I’m considering tackling a fantasy story that’s been in my head for about a decade, but I’d also like to scrap last year’s attempt and rewrite it.  Both ideas are appealing in their own way, and both have fairly well-developed plots that can get me to and beyond 50,000 words.

I’m panicking because I like to have my writing ventures planned out ahead of time.  I like to get the Halloween and be frothing at the mouth to start writing.  I like to know where I’ll be writing, what I’ll be writing, when I can get peace and quiet…

And at the moment, I have nothing much besides the “frothing at the mouth” part.  This will be my first nano as a working professional, and I don’t have any of the security I did as a student — no guaranteed quiet time or space, no dining hall for a quick meal I don’t have to prepare, and no network of 1,000 other local students all doing the same thing.

I have to write without my safety net.

Perhaps this is what nano is really all about.  I’ll certainly find out!