n+2

Okay…I’ll come back and do an entry update. How’s everybody doing? I hope the answer to that question is, "We’re doing pretty darned good, thanks for asking!" because I want all of the people that I care about to be doing well, and I certainly care about all of you lovely people =) Isn’t that the way it works, though? You sort of come to think of the people you know online as close friends, even though you have no idea who they are and more often than not don’t even know their real name; you only know their handle or their username or the fake name they’ve adopted for the online world. And then you find yourself caring about them as much as you’d care about anybody else. You want them to have good days. Well, I want all of you to have good days.

Anyway, I’ve hit 4,056 words. Pretty darned good. A lot of my friends are doing NaNo this year, which is interesting; I’ve been talking to a lot of them about their books and I was thinking earlier about how interesting it is to see what each person wants to write about. It kind of says a lot about someone’s personality – the story that they come up with. And everyone I’ve talked to so far seems to have a really interesting idea; the sort of thing I’d be more than likely to pick up in a store just because it’s so different than what I’ve heard before. I really want to read all of them when they’re done. And I swear I’m not just saying that because they’re my friends! This is probably the only place where I can be honest because none of the people I talk to on a frequent basis come here. There were two people who used to be ODers, but they’ve either left or they just don’t have the time to be that active anymore. No, in all honesty – I really do love the ideas I keep hearing about. I’ve talked back and forth with a couple of people about potential ideas that they’re working on.

I’m also trying to keep my friend Amanda Black (this isn’t the Amanda I’m living with) pumped up enough to keep going. I’d love for her to finish this year. The more people who finish, the merrier, so I’m always trying to encourage everybody. I love NaNo because it’s not just about the race of who can get done first (although I love trying to stay ahead of everybody else); it’s about getting everybody across that ultimate finish line so that everybody can rejoice together.

If you’re doing NaNo this year, I am so right there with you. We shall succeed!!!!!!!!!!!!! (or at least we shall kill our characters trying).

– VdS