Meg Dowell Writes

It’s official. NaNoWriMo has begun.

I’m sure you’re relieved that I’m not going to be ranting about how excited I am for the darn thing to start, now that the first day of November is two-thirds of the way over. Because I ranted. A lot. And I’m sure yesterday was the last straw. You were like, “Oh my God, SHUT UP ALREADY.” I know you were. I know because I was, too. My brain just kept going, “Write! Write! Write!” And my clock just kept going, “I think I’ll move slower than normal today.” And it was pretty much horrible.

But, you know, I was patient. I watched this movie when I couldn’t think of any more ideas for my outline (which I’m still not finished with, by the way. Let’s hope I don’t write too fast). And then I listened to this song a million times, wrote some more outline, that sort of thing. Then I watched this movie, and it was still only ten-thirty. So I worked more on my outline, and then I went crazy with Facebook status updates.

Meg ONE HOUR! Yes, Evie, I know how many seconds that is.

Meg already feels sleep-deprived…half an hour, people!!!

Meg thinks these next seven minutes will be the longest seven minutes of her entire life…7 minutes. Just in case you were wondering.

Meg Six.

Meg Am I getting on your nerves yet? Five.

Meg is sitting here, staring at the clock. Four minutes.

Meg There are three minutes remaining. Three.

Meg TWO MINUTES!!!!! Time to open a new document. *click*

Meg ONE MINUTE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Meg NANOWRIMO TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And then, once I calmed down a little:

Meg has now written ten words, and is going to bed. Goodnight, world.

It felt good to write those ten words. It was like every emotion I’d been feeling in the past week or so was released in thoee words. I went to bed, forgot to reset my clock, and slept. And now it’s almost six-thirty, I’m done with my first chapter, and my word count is 2,404. I posted Chapter 1 as my novel excerpt, which you can find here, under “Novel Info.”

I think I’ve only eaten about ten out of the two-pound bag of Twizzlers sitting on my desk, which is a record for me (as in, I usually eat a lot more than ten in one day). In a nutshell, my first day of NaNoWriMo has gone well. It’s all thanks to my outline, of course, but how could I forget all the little people who got me to where I am today?

I’m nowhere. Relax. Not to say that everyone I know and love isn’t being supportive, because you totally are. Especially you, Evie, even though you didn’t stay up until midnight with me like I hoped you would. But I guess I can forgive you, since you’re the only one in the world who is going to have access to my entire novel before anyone else. That’s right. All of you who are not Evie? Be jealous.

But really, don’t be. That’s kind of what my book is about. Jealousy, I mean. Sort of.

If you wrote a book, what would yours be about? That was the question we were all going to answer during the game we were playing in my high school discussion group this morning at church, but Matt decided to be a bum and declare that we weren’t answering that question. And if you’re reading this, Matt, don’t try to defend yourself. You know what you did.

Another question was, “If you were a wrestler, what would your name in the ring be?” I decided that, in a parallel universe, my wrestler name would be The Mighty Twig.

I hope to get at least 3,000 words entered into the validator before I go to sleep tonight. I know that’s, like, just under what I technically have to have before the end of tomorrow, but I don’t care. There could be a day in the middle of November where I can’t write to save my life. And that’s why I like getting ahead.

But of course, if I’m going to get there, I need to stop ranting about nothing. Come on. You know that’s exactly what I’m doing. Don’t pretend you don’t.

Have a great rest-of-Sunday, and an awesome November 2nd! Remember: don’t wear your favorite jeans to dinner. You might get spaghetti sauce on them. (Read my excerpt, and you’ll have an “aha” moment.)

Love&hugs, Meg♥