The Final Countdown

Okay, so last night I was sitting at my computer, straining my eyeballs, baring blinking, and staring down the official count down on the NaNoWriMo home page, as many of my fellow writers did in their own places and time zones. I'd been hearing all night about my friends starting and how they had started off the new year with a bang, and it was finally going to be my turn. I seriously was barely breathing, I kid you not! As soon as that counter hit "0" BAM! I was off like a rocket! It was intense! It was a very appropriate moment for this song to be playing in my head:

I can not even tell you how wonderful it feels to be at this again! Earlier this year I wrote my first novel that was not for NaNoWriMo and I did Camp NaNoWriMo in August, but neither of those are even close to the same thing. There is just something about the real deal, doing it in November with hundreds of thousands of other people, all over the world, all of us trying to achieve that goal, that dream, of finishing a novel.

I was so proud as I was typing away like a maniac to know that for the first time my Mom was upstairs doing the exact same thing. She did Nano with me two years ago, but she didn't end up finishing and she has never written at midnight. It was a big deal. She is upstairs writing again as we speak. She is off to a great start!

I am also proud to say that I am very happy with what I have done today as well. I didn't spend a ton of time writing today, but I've ended up with a total of 3,836 for the first day. SCORE! Very proud indeed. It is definitely a great feeling to start out more than a day ahead. I am very blessed to be a fast typist and in my last 20 minute sprint I pulled off a rocking number of 1,146 words!

There are always some bumps in the road, and I am sure that this is going to help me out later on, especially in the doldrums and sludge that we all encounter each third week of NaNoWriMo. I swear, it is unavoidable, even for people who have been rocketing ahead. It is a good thing to be prepared, that is for sure.

I was a little worried about NaNoWriMo this year. The past three years that I have done Nano were the only ones I've done it and for each year I worked on a part of a trilogy, and this year is the first that I have done Nano with new characters. That was daunting to say the least. I've had the same characters along for the ride every time before this, and now I've got some new players of the game. I'm also tackling a new age group, which has been interesting, but that challenge has been fantastic! I am very happy with how things have gone so far, and I look forward to the rest of what promises to be a fantastic month! I'm definitely feeling one or more of my notorious 10,000 days coming some time in the near future!

So, are you doing NaNoWriMo this year? If you are, I would love to hear about it! Also, good luck! Even if you aren't ahead of the game from day one you can still make it to the finish line on top!

- Heidi Nicole Bird