Okay, so I'm not going trick or treating tonight, which is probably just as well since I have the willpower of a soap dish.

That said, my favorite Halloween costume as a kid? A blue-headed punk rocker (I looked really good with blue hair). My least favorite? The Hefty trash bag. I have no idea what I was thinking.

Obviously I wasn't.

Boo.

~*~*~*~

Unless one lives in Belgium, ::cough, cough:: NaNoWriMo begins for me--here in Cali-for-ni-ay--in about six hours. Only I'll be asleep then. So it won't officially begin until about six p.m. or so Thursday evening, when I'll plop into my chair with a wheezy sigh of fear and anticipation. Even now just thinking about it fills my tummy with butterflies. I've already farted out the dread and wah-gah-gah flies, but they must've laid eggs.

Mantra De NaNoWriMo

1. I will not read what I’ve written. Overcoming my rewriting procrippledictism will be my biggest challenge. I must not cave. I will not cave.

2. I will write 1700 words of deadly dreck a day. If I’m lucky enough to write more than that, I will not tell myself: Hah! You don’t have to write tomorrow.

3. I will not let my plot holes slow me down, even when they are big enough to swallow that fictional whale of a whale, Jonah. (I also won't be slowed down by minutia like trying to register the difference between wail, wale, or whale. Just type and move on. As long as the rest of the sentence makes sense, owl figger et owt.)

4. I will not be sucked into the NaNoWriMo Forums. Nay, I will be too busy writing.

5. I will only consume one glass of Jack and Coke a night. One glass = quirky inspiration. More than that = slobbery dreckery endery. Hey, I am no Hemingway.

6. I will only call sick in to work on Fridays. No, Mondays. Um.

7. I will cheer Ian on, even though he's already succeeded at NaNoWriMo three years in a row and could probably do it again blindfolded with his fingers duct-taped together (I will also cheer the rest of my NaNo buddies on).

8. I will quash the writerly pessimism that comes from the green monsterly editor inside.

9. I will have fun. I might not laugh, but I'll have fun, dammit.

10. I will let my characters lead me to the door inside my head (which Chris Baty assures me lies somewhere in my un-subconscious). I've never even been near that door, let alone through it, but I'm game.

I will rock this November.

I will rock this November.

I will write a craptastic novel this November.