November 1 is approaching far too quickly for my liking. NaNoWriMo will soon be starting and thousands of us will be lurching out of the starting gate. I for one am excited and nervous about it.

I am looking at this writing challenge as a way of motivating me, of propelling me into 'real' writing - meaning committed writing. I know it is not going to happen without work, but it could be a sound beginning for me.

My problem, as I see it, is that I have nothing to start with, no characters, no plot, no scenes, no genre, no plan. As I said, nothing. Well, okay .. so I have a few ideas floating around in my head but they are just that .. floating, not attached to anything in particular. And I have had a couple of dreams, just strange ones so that I wonder ... is that a NaNo clue? I don't know!

I do know that most people who apply themselves to NaNoWriMo do so with a plan in mind or outlined on paper (or computer). They have an idea of where they are headed. There are some others who don't, and - like me - are going to be sitting down to write whatever comes to them once they begin.

Thus far on my NaNo page I have three 'buddies', (two of the four of us are first timers) and I think for each of us this is going to be a major undertaking because of other life things, but we are going to make the effort. I've signed up for the daily tips and encouragements, hoping that will spur me on and keep me going, especially since I don't know WHERE I'm going! I'll be keeping a running update on my WordPress blog (hopefully!) of my word count, so that will help keep me committed.

Anyone else out there a first time NaNo'er? Anyone here from Nova Scotia doing this?