To Nano or Not to Nano?

Long before the iPod Nano, there was NaNoWriMo: National Novel Writing Month (always in November). I did my first (and best) NaNoWriMo in 2002. I speedwrote my way through 175 pages in 30 days. Sometimes typing furiously in coffee shops with other NanoWriters, and sometimes just eking it away at home. I got down the first draft of the novel I'm still wrestling with, trying to finish and polish now. It was a great discipline, watching my word count go up like a thermometer, competing invisibly with other people in my neighborhood, my city, my state. I remember the day I ranked #9 in the city of Oakland. Happy day.

I kind of assumed I'd never go in for such madness again. But this November I will be away at writing residency, four days from coming home. Maybe it would be a good place to start NaNoWriMo again, to jumpstart myself so that I keep my momentum up when I return to "normal" life.

I'm thinking about it. I haven't signed up yet. But oh what a heady rush that was. Those wordcounts! Those pages! And many of them not half bad.