Yes, I understand completely if you all hate me after reading this.

With NaNoWrimo coming up, all of my IRL writing friends are planning their novels and gearing up for, what is to them, a challenge of such enormity that it is all they can think of. Now, don't get me wrong, I spend a disproportionate amount of my time both awake and asleep thinking about my characters (because I am a writer, and that's just what we do), but unlike some of my NaNo friends, I don't try and take my holiday time in November so that I can have a hope of winning (on a related note, being a teacher I have about as much control over my work schedule as I do over the phases of the moon). NaNoWriMo is just not a challenge to me, which doesn't mean I don't support the cause (I do), or donate (I do that too), or encourage other writers and buy them drinks (you get the idea...).

NaNoWriMo requires an adult to write 50,000 words in order to qualify as a winner. That's 1667 words a day. Lots of people do not make it, for lots of reasons, but the main one given is always "oh, there just wasn't enough time" - and my reply to this is always thus:

"What the fuck were you doing that took so long?"

Now, I have enough evidence to prove that I am something of an aberration in many ways, I know and do lots of things that are not expected of a person in my position, and I know that among writing communities both on- and off-line I am considered something of a freak, and sometimes a show off.

And I'm OK with that. Sod it, if I'm not willing to be proud of myself, how on earth do I expect anyone else to be. And I believe that goes for everyone. Pride is not a sin.

So here's my update, a little thing to mark that I have, without competition, or challenge, for no reason whatsoever, and without pushing myself, written 50,000 words in just under four weeks, and mostly kept myself happy with 2500 words a day. For those of wondering what I'm going to give you next, you might be able to tell from those numbers that I am a significant portion into writing Tiger Winter, and not planning on stopping soon.