It’s a sad word count to start, but that’s the number of words for my first day of my first NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month).

There are numerous excuses for why my word count is pathetic, but excuses are for suckers.

What I’m loving about this project, besides the forced deadline (which I will put off like all other deadlines :)), is what I’m discovering about how I write non-school work. I know my process for short stories – write whatever comes into my head until something else attracts my attention and then come back to the story long enough to smooth the end into something I can live with.

The novel so far is running the same way. Since there is less to distract me currently, I am writing longer stories. But I have yet to hit my general word count for other stories, so I’ll see what happens when I work more tomorrow.

I know there are many other writers who are part of NaNoWriMo who have plans. I follow authors who actually have people buy their books in stores and they use this time to write first drafts of novels they will sell.

I am not in this category. Right now my story is dialogue. I’ve never written this way before. I have no idea who my narrator is. I don’t even know if this novel will be 1st person or one of the 3rds. 2nd doesn’t seem to fit. I don’t even know where the story is going.

It’s all rather fun.

I’m enjoying the discovery part. I have no pressure for this novel to work. I expect it to completely suck. So my plan is to enjoy this time and learn more about how I write and see if I can cobble together enough to refine it into a decent story. Oh, and listen to all those albums I’ve been hearing about recently and pick some up. Listened to The Dresden Dolls “A is for Accident” tonight; solid beat with words that only occasionally stood out. Music I’d like to learn the lyrics to sometime but too difficult to sing without more effort. Perfect writing music.

So here’s the beginning of my novel writing month. Because everyone should have that novel they wrote that one time in a drawer somewhere.