I finally "put butt in chair" and got to work on the travelogue/memoir about my two years teaching in China. It's been stewing in my head for the past year, I've scribbled notes in different notebooks, I wrote individual essays based on that experience (food shopping) but I haven't actually started the memoir yet.

But I'm doing it, finally.

I decided to NaNoWriMo it because I think that kind of big, intense goal is just what I need to get all these thought tendrils in one place. Part of my excuse for not starting earlier was I needed to figure out a structure for the piece, needed an outline, an angle--I can't just write about everything that happened in two years. I need a plan!

Only. . . I'm not really a planner. I plan by writing; I figure out what I'm doing, what I want to do, as I get deeper and deeper into the pages. And with NaNo, I can write about everything--I'll need to to reach that 50,000 word goal. For me, that's what it's all about, generating the raw material. The style, the story will come later. In the handful of days since I began (Sept. 4, to be exact) the crazy-paced writing has helped me remember and find connections between scenes I hadn't considered before.

So, yes. I'm beginning two months early because I needed to. Once I made up my mind to do it, I didn't want to wait until November, didn't want things, like life, to pop up, didn't want an excuse. 

I'll write a few updates a week to track my progress. Also, it makes me feel better that someone's listening, that I'm accountable! (Guilt does wonders for this project!).