The past few years I’ve really toyed with the idea of doing NaNoWriMo. Lots of writers I either know or follow do it.

Take for instance Lisa Logan (whose blog is Writing in My Wildest Dreams.) One of her recent posts is about how she’s participating in NaNoWriMo again this year. It’s her fourth year. The projects she did in the previous three years all have been published or are under contract. (She shares some great tips for how to successfully cross the finish-line, btw.)

Her post was really inspiring and motivating. I’d love to do it and be like Lisa, but November sucks for me to dedicate time to just my fiction. Not with Thanksgiving in there. But this year I thought, “Even with Thanksgiving I can do it! Or at least I can try. I’ve been wanting to for so long now!”

Last year I vowed to…but that’s when I was starting to go downhill from what I’d later learn was the cancer ravaging me. I was lucky to accomplish much of anything back then.

The November before (2007) Wayne was in the process of moving home after a five month separation. (We were separated because he’d taken a job in Florida and we were planning to move. I’d stayed behind to sell the house.) The last thing I wanted to do was take any more time away from my marriage. I was too happy to have him home and not have the stress of constantly keeping the house clean weighing me down!

But this year, ever since September, I’ve been thinking about NaNoWriMo. Which of the many book ideas I have would I pick to be my NaNoWriMo project?

That was part of the problem. I couldn’t decide. And then Wayne informed me he has two weeks off and he’s going to be taking vacation, where do I want to go? Plus there’s Thanksgiving, and I have to get my port out…well, that cinched it. I know what happens when I’m interrupted too much. I meltdown and don’t write. The last thing I need is to start another book and get pulled away from it and leave it hanging.

So, I’ve decided while I’m officially not doing NaNoWriMo this year, I am going to use the time I do have to finish one of the books I have started.

Here it is November 3rd though and I’m still trying to figure out which book to concentrate on! Shadyside (a horror), The Girl of His Dreams (a romance), The Dungeness Curse (a paranormal romance), Dot’s Girls (women’s fiction), The Painting Circle (women’s fiction), or A Past Life Love Story (romance/women’s fiction)…decisions, decisions.

Maybe I’ll figure it out tomorrow!

If you’re doing NaNoWriMo, I wish you speedy fingers and strong cups of coffee or tea!