You Know You're Excited for NaNo...

...when you dream about it and you're only halfway through October.

Last night, I dreamt of NaNoWriMo. Also, random family feuds and demonic butlers. But the important thing about all that is NaNo.

I am the most psyched for NaNo this year that I've ever been for any NaNo ever. Including my first one. (Incidentally, I totally don't remember my first NaNo--not what I wrote for it, not how far I got, and not even what year it was. But I'm pretty sure I wasn't this excited.)

I have a story I love. I have a ton of elements in this story. I even have a subplot! (Sort of. Maybe. Kind of. Okay, maybe not. Kind of hard to tell at this point.)

I'd originally vowed not to think about this story at all until November, in the hope that I'd be able to keep up my enthusiasm without overthinking things. Well, that didn't exactly work out. But now I'm more psyched than ever. And I freaking want NaNo to start NOW. I just want to write.

Of course, having another half a month to do some nice planning and research, that's pretty nice.

But I still wish I could start writing now.

NaNo. O. Mi. Gosh. Louise.

I've been hanging out on the NaNo forums, and for some reason this has made me absolutely positive that November is, like, two days away. Oh, do I wish...

At this point, I just want November to be here.

And then I remember I have a short story to write for a Christmastime Sekrit Santa exchange of stories for AW. And I technically have research and a little bit of plotting to do before November rolls around. And then I hope November never comes. And then I hate calculus, just for a change of pace. (I could write a whole blog post on why I hate, hate, HATE the calculus at my college. But I digress.)

Did I ever mention I'm in college now? 'Cause I am. And it's AWESOME. ('Cept when it's not. Like during calculus class. But I digress... 'cause I do that a lot.)

Anyway, for those of you not (yet?) caught up in the insanity of NaNo... November is National Novel Writing Month, and during November, a ton of people try to write 50,000 words of novel in 30 days. (This amounts to approximately 1,667 words per day.) Cue loss of sanity.

I've participated, um, I think four or five times. Technically. Twice, I got past 3,000 words. Two years ago, I got to almost 30,000 words. Last year, I got to about 15,000 words (I blame senioritis).

This year, though? This year... I have two options.

One: I will win. I will get to 50,000. I might even finish the story. I might even get over 50,000 words. Like, y'know, 50,001.

Two: I will die.

No, really. By December 1st, I will have 50,000 words of first draft... or I will be dead. Which means I will have 50,000 words, because dying would just be unfair to my roommate. (Seriously, you think anyone would believe I died of novel failure? No. Which logically means people will assume I was murdered. By my roommate. Because logic is totally my strong suit. Ahem.)

I have four characters. Three of them are named. I have... some scenes. I have a source of conflict, assuming I can figure out who the antagonist is.

Now, what I need: an idea of how the magic works, because that's kind of important. Possibly the main character's "special ability" thing will change. Which could be an issue, but maybe not.

Oh, boy. I don't even really have a plot and I already have plot holes. Where's my muse trap...?

Also, fair warning: I may attempt (key word: "may") to use NaNo as an excuse to post... stuff. Often. With little to no relevance to life. Like word counts. Or complaints about word counts. Or even... word count angst. (I apologize in advance.)

Alternately, I will completely forget the blog again. Because I tend to do that. So... yeah.

No, seriously, anyone seen my muse trap?