30 days, 50,000 words, umpteen cups of coffee! NaNoWriMo time has arrived again. This seasonal event has become a tradition of mine, if 3 times can be called a tradition. If nothing else, it helps to establish, reinforce, or (in my case) reestablish the habit of writing something every day. Editing, proof reading, grammar … faugh! This is about producing content!

This year is going to be something really special for me. I’ve been telling you in previous posts about Scott Roche’s The Way of The Gun over at Kickstarter.com. As of this writing, Scott has less than a day left. Go, contribute, enjoy!

Anyhow, Scott has given me permission to set my NaNo book in his universe. I’m extremely excited about this! Of course, now I have to produce a novel. Let me tell you a little about it.

We have a winner! After an interesting month, I finally stumbled across the finish line about 2:30 this morning with a total of 50,192 words! I done, but I'm not done-done, I still have more story to go. I'd have to say that I'm about half way through a tale of heartache, angst, passion and things that blow up ... in space. Oh, and starships, hostile aliens, giant killer robots, nefarious politicians and damsels-not-in-distress. ("We can take care of ourselves, thank you very much!") I have managed to pull off Phase 1, but that was the easy part! Project Mjölnir rolls on; I have December and January to finish the draft and complete the edits. This is no time to shilly shally.

This first week started out with a bang and ended in a sputter. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, I cranked out what is for me an impressive 8,695 words. Then on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, nothing. Not a squeak. Now, I could come up with a host of excuses for the drought but the main reason is lack of BIC. All of this means I have a lot of sitting in the near future, cause with Thanksgiving coming up at the end of the month I won’t have a lot of time to play catch up. For my money, the single best thing an writer can do to improve his writing is, well, to write.

Another lesson learned, don’t lose momentum. I had a ton of momentum going into Friday, then I squandered it. It’s hard enough to develop the discipline to write, try getting it back after an attack of slacktidous!

Just a quick note. You're liable to get a lot of these one offs in the coming weeks. Interesting day so far. I was able to crank out 2111 words before work this morning, so I'm feeling pretty good about my first day's progress. I'm not even going to look at it. I have a feeling that it's mostly dreck, but that's okay.

NaNoWriMo has been having issues with their site, so they haven't published their widgets yet. My home rolled ones failed in Internet Explorer requiring a work around. That was fun. Over on the Project Mjölnir page, I was able to get all my preliminary work done, except a trial podcast. I had been hoping to limber up with a reading of The Raven for Halloween, but I ran out of time. I’ll have to move that down into another phase, along with the forgotten task of obtaining cover art.

You really don’t know what effect you have on people, especially people you barely know.

Let me get this out in the open; I have a compulsive personality. It's a quirk, to be sure, but it's one I fully embrace and own. So, when presented a new and shiny toy, there is a great likelihood that I will wear it out; for instance, my current infatuation with Twitter. That's really a half truth, I've become somewhat enamored with all social media, from the cotton candy favored confection that is Facebook to the more sophisticated and professional LinkedIn.

Competing with this overwhelming need to comment on everything is a secret love that I have hidden away, lo these many years. That love is air-time. I'm not talking grabbing some sky on a half-pipe. No, I'm talking about talking; platters spinning, cans on and mic hot. You see, for the first thirteen years of my professional career, I was a broadcaster.