NaNoWriMope

November 1. Which means National Novel Writing Month is off and running. For years I've regarded the participants in this annual novel-writing binge (many of whom are close friends) with a mix of sincere admiration and involuntary disapprobation — they same way I look on people who jump out of airplanes, get up before 6 in order to exercise, or do their own roofing.

This year, though, I signed up — and for no reason other than the fact I really have nothing better to do (job search aside, of course). The goal is to write a 50,000-word novel in 30 days. That's roughly 1,700 words a day — or, in my case, as I have to discount both weekends and Thanksgiving week, it's about 3,000 words a day.

Today I wrote about 50 words. Then I did the dishes, took the dog for a walk to the comic shop, and met Poupolis for beer and billiards at Molly Maguires. Yep, I'm off to flying start.

So tomorrow, I'll need to squeeze out about 5,950 words. You can see where this is going.