NaNoWriMo Arrives in 2 Days

November is National Novel Writing Month.
Who's with me?
Crickets????
The point of National Novel Writing Month is for me to avoid finishing the edits on my other novels.
Oh, wait. That's not the point.
Hundreds of thousands of authors and would-be authors join Nanowrimo in an attempt to write 50,000 words of a novel. Fifty thousand words does  not quite equal a novel, but it's a good chunk of one.
My last novel was about 80,000. The one that will hopefully be published in November is over 100,000 words.
Since my first novel The Summer of France was set in France. And my soon-to-be-published novel, I See London, I See France, is also set partially in France, I decided to focus on a novel that is set right here in Columbus.
Here's the synopsis:
 When was the last time 34-year-old Maeve left her apartment? She can't really remember. Maybe six weeks earlier for a haircut. She works from home, has a treadmill in the corner of her Columbus apartment, and Amazon plus Green Bean delivery bring everything she needs to her door. 
But this wasn't how it was supposed to turn out. Maeve sets out to turn her life around with Feng Shui and a search for her childhood friends who knew the real her.

Nanowrimo has this weird thing where it asks the author to give a synopsis of the novel and an excerpt plus a book cover. How is all of this possible for people who haven't begun their novels yet? Luckily, I'm about 25,000 words into  my novel. If I write 50,000 words in November, I'll have 75,000 word and I'll be close to a finished novel. 

I wasted some more time not editing my novel and creating a mock book cover:

Don't worry. I'm not quitting my day job to do book covers.

And, here's an excerpt from my 25,000 already written words.

Pausing at the window, Maeve realized how glorious the leaves looked from her second story view and suddenly, she wanted to get out there to experience it. She hadn’t felt that way… well, she couldn’t remember when she’d felt that way. Before Joe had broken up with her? Before she’d met Joe? Enthusiasm seemed to have drained from her life sometime between childhood and this 34^th year she found herself in. “This must be the enthusiasm gap the politicians are always talking about,” Maeve thought to herself then smiled.
Had it been during her college years that she became blasé about everything? She had hung out with a lot of hipsters whose main goal had been to try new things only to dismiss them. Maybe she’d embraced that philosophy too much. She’d taken it to the point where she really did stop feeling joy at the taste of chocolate melting on her tongue or a fresh breeze blowing against her cheeks.
“Today is the first day… Wait. I’m not ready to go there,” Maeve said aloud to her bedroom.

NaNoWriMo asks authors to choose their genre. I definitely consider this novel Women's Fiction, but I don't have that choice on NaNoWriMo. I could choose Chick Lit, which of course is dismissed out of hand by many people, or I could choose Mainstream Fiction. I chose Mainstream Fiction.
So, starting Friday, I'm off to see how many words I can add to my novel.
I'll keep you updated on my journey.
I'd love it if any other authors would friend me on Nanowrimo so we can cheer each other on. You'll find me at Paulita Kincer.