Am I doing NaNoWriMo?

Short answer: no. Okay, you can stop reading now. (Note: if you don't know what NaNoWriMo is, click here to find out more)

For those interested in my motives, I'll give the longer answer. I've been tempted all of October to do NaNoWriMo and, I've got to admit, I've been back and forth on wanting to do it. There are a lot of reasons for wanting to do NaNoWriMo.

First, all the cool kids are doing it -- like almost all of my writing buddies, which is going to make me feel left out. It is a great way to get a lot of writing done and is an excellent exercise in writing and turning off the internal editor. Not to mention the fact that I was brainstorming an idea that I really think would work for NaNoWriMo.

However, I'm still going to have to say no. I'm currently editing my memoir and I would like to outline the idea mentioned in the previous paragraph a lot further before pursuing that storyline. Plus, I have a personal, non-writing goal that I would like to focus on over my next three months. I think these three things are going to suffer if I do NaNoWriMo, and I really can't afford to do it if I want to achieve some of the goals I've put on my calendar. Two of those dates are pretty set in stone, so it would be best if I didn't dance around them with NaNoWriMo and tempt myself out of missing those timelines.

It is with a heavy heart that I'm not going to do be doing this. I think the benefits are there, but this year is just not good for me. No promises, but I hope to win NaNoWriMo 2013! For everybody else, please be entertained by this song that does an excellent job of capturing the spirit of NaNoWriMo!

Good luck to those who are doing NaNoWriMo. I look forward to cheering you on and hearing of your successes!