NaNoWriMo... Why Must You Tease Me?

So every year, in the lead-up to November, I think about undertaking the National Novel Writing Month challenge.  The challenge is simple.  Write 50,000 words during the month of November.  I did it once.  Back in 2004.

I'm still not quite sure how I did it other than I had a job with a little flexibility in what I was working on at any given time, so I could sneak in a few words here and there, take my lunch early in the morning and write away, uninterrupted.  I also had the goal to reach.  And I had a personal goal to get the story down on paper so I could give it to Tim as a wedding gift.  We were getting married in January, and I thought it would be a great idea to write up a story, have it printed/bound and give it to him.  It was a good idea.  He never read it, but I still think it was a good idea.

This year, I fully intended to participate and top the word count I had last year (15,542).  But it is the 20th of November, and I have not written a word.  Not one.  It is embarrassing.

I do have some ready-made excuses like migraines, scrapbooking, blogging, schoolwork, a toddler, and ailing in-laws, but I'm really kind of mad at myself for not doing at least a little writing during the month.  I wish I could count the major papers I had to write and submit (due to my own horrible procrastination), but since I hate every word I wrote for those papers, they simply cannot count.

Maybe I need to stop writing this blog post now, and shut out the world and squeeze some writing in today.  At least I wouldn't end the month with a ZERO word count.  :)

Hmmm.