National Novel Writing Month in Saipan

Um, make that 3 years...

But in November, we set aside all previously written prose (and poetry, and song lyrics, and scripts, etc.) and start anew.

I am not alone in Saipan hammering away on a new novel this November 2008. I'm not sure how the students at SSHS and MHS are doing (few have updated their word counts). I'm quite sure that the 4th graders at Kagman Elementary School have not set 50,000 word goals (although their personal goals are heroic for each of them!). I know that there are teachers with meager word counts to their names as they lead their students into the fray.

And then there are a few of us fools seriously aiming at the 50,000 word goal this month.

Like Snoopy, pondering the great novel yet to be written...

Joe Race, Tom Uhl, and me.

I've written over 14,000 words, which sounds impressive, until you consider that means I have about 36,000 words to go...

The good news: our region, Asia: Micronesia is AHEAD of 32 other regions in word count! That's raw word count (not per person). And to me, that is amazing!

Ahead of us is Week 2: Week 2 is the most hellish week of NaNoWriMo as shown in this illustration from Hannah K of the Netherlands.

And some of us are still grappling with our inner editors. For those who don't know what that's like, here's a Peanuts comic that gets the point across: Lucy is an outer-- inner editor.

Thanks to Charles M. Schultz, for Snoopy and his inspiration.

Now back to writing.