It's Writin' Time

Some of you may be familiar with my annual writing effort: National Novel Writing Month (aka NaNoWriMo). Essentially, I am participating in a sort of writing marathon -- 50,000 words in 30 days (the month of November). It's an activity organized online, but the effort is essentially individual. You can follow my progress on my NaNo page.
The first year I did it, 2004, I "won" by managing to successfully string together 50K words in the regulated amount of time in a story about a space bounty hunter. It wasn't bad, but it also wasn't great. The following year, 2005, I wrote about a poor couple who discover there is a magical "underbelly" of the world. I did not finish, because I was finishing up the construction document phase of a project. In 2006, I decided to experiment a little with a story that was a thinly veiled Mary Sue -- wish fulfillment of a sort. I didn't finish that year because I got involved with someone and didn't have the time. In 2007, I knew I wouldn't get far. I was working on taking the ARE and studying would take priority. I decided to try a light variant on the exercise, writing a faux travel journal by hand. It was also a bit of wish fulfillment, as I pretended I traded my car for a motorcycle and took off for Mexico. As expected, I didn't get far. (All of the stories above can be investigated by clicking on the NaNoWriMo label or this link.)
This year, I have no expected interruptions. I've told my friends that I'll be turning down invitations to drinks. I have no S.O. and zero prospects of having one in the near future. Work is not too pressing and there are no impending deadlines. AND I'd like to complete a NaNo novel that's good enough to expand into an 80,000 word (regulation length) novel that I can try to shop around to publishers. If I want to be able to support myself in retirement by writing novels, I really ought to start now.
So, wish me luck and tune in for the blog posts that I'm sure will be procrastination from the real writing. ;)