Let the NaNoWriMo Begin!

As my friends know, I’ve been going back and forth about doing NaNoWriMo all month. In some ways, it probably doesn’t make much sense. I now know that I will workshopping my thesis next semester with the fabulous, fantastic Jill Santopolo. The rational part of my brain is like you should be putting all your effort into that project and you are still teaching and taking two classes (etc.) But the irrational part of my brain is saying it will be fun and you can do both. The irrational part of my brain won this morning (probably in part influenced by a pretty intense sugar hangover after last night’s Halloween festivities). While it might detract some focus from the main project, participating in NaNoWriMo in 2013 made my writing SO MUCH BETTER. Hopefully, it will have the same effect this time around. Plus my thesis is very very very loosely based on a subplot from my last NaNoWriMo attempt, so maybe this event is good luck for me!  

I’m cheating a little bit, by working on a story I’ve been workshopping in class this semester. It’s about a seventeen-year-old girl who’s never had a boyfriend and suddenly becomes interested in a twenty-year-old guy who’s a former crush and the fourteen-year-old little brother of a friend. I’ve been mulling this idea around in my head for almost six months and am still not really sure where it’s going, but feel excited to start taking it somewhere.

If you are also participating in the NaNoWriMo madness this month feel free to make me your writing buddy (I’m listed as Alison Doherty … so that’s easy to remember). Good luck to everyone with their writing and we’ll see what happens!