Technically, I’m not taking part in NaNoWriMo this year. I am planning on writing 50,000 words of a novel during November, but I’ll be using the time to finish the oh-so-wittily named ‘Period Pains’, rather than starting something new.

Since the official NaNoWriMo rules state you can’t work on a half-finished manuscript (I believe they describe it as being ‘punishable by death’) this means I’m not a true participant, and I’m not going to log my word count on their site. That doesn’t mean I’m under any less pressure, though. This book has been sitting unfinished for far too long, and it’s high time I got it finished.

Luckily, this year there are quite a few NaNo-ers who will help to spur me on. Plenty of brilliant bloggers are doing the blog version – NaBloPloMo – including Cate and Christina, which will no doubt keep me entertained. Keris is using the month to finish her current book, Jenni is taking part (that may have something to do with me) and I’ve also roped in the boyfriend. So far our writing time has mainly involved him giving me dirty looks as I hit the daily word count before he does. This is probably because I bash dialog out without caring while he takes the time to write things that make sense. Right now, I just want to get the basics down so I have the story in place.

Problem is, it’s hard to write 1700 words a day when there are other Very Important Things to be done, like putting up mirrors, re-arranging the living room, sitting in the pub reading The Sunday Times, walking around Crystal Palace park and watching BBC Four programmes about Mills & Boon.

*cough*