Yes, I’m doing Nanowrimo again this year, November 1-30. This will mark my sixth time participating, because I did it twice in 2006; once in March on my own, then in November with the rest of the world. Technically, I’ll be cheating this year. You’re supposed to start with a fresh novel, yet I’m using the 30 day/50,000 word goal to do the rewrites on The Wendy House. Sue me.

For those of you who don’t know, the first draft of what would later become Waiting For Spring was penned during the aforementioned March 2006 personal Nanowrimo session. I chronicled my progress here on the blog, and it’s kind of funny to reread it four-and-a-half years later. Note my vague description of my planned novel in the comments section of my first Wrimo post:

I’m sticking with what I know for now: life in a small New England town as seen through the eyes of a quirky, uppity woman who doesn’t read Ephesians and is nursing a bitter grudge against a certain former Red Sox player.

Johnny Damon had just defected from the Red Sox to the Yankees. The wounds from that betrayal were still fresh, and the first draft actually contained a bitter diatribe against fickle, money-hungry ball players and their equally evil agents.

Also while writing that first draft, I ran into some potential legal trouble while trying to do some research.

Far from believing that I was a mere wannabe novelist in the midst of research, somewhere along the way she got it into her head that I was a crazed psycho planning some hideous plot to avenge the wrongs done to a friend or family member.

This year’s NaNo month will probably be less fraught with peril, at least for myself. My characters, on the other hand, will be put through hell. And that is how it should be.

See you all on the other side.