A Novel in a MONTH??!!

What have I gotten myself into?!

So I have been on a self-flagellating roll lately and really under the weather about the whole me-as-a-writer thing.  I mean, I submitted an essay and a poem to Christian Science Monitor, and no reply, which means that they are not planning to publish me.  And if I were a Pollyanna, I would just brush it off, and submit something else somewhere else, but I am not. What I am is an Eeyore. And a very pessimistic one too.

Then somewhere I don't even remember where, I saw some information about the site NaNoWriMo http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/ , and I decided to check it out.  This is an organization that encourages their users, who are struggling like me and not-so-struggling writers, to write a novel IN ONE MONTH! They've declared November as a National Novel Writing Month, and in their own words,
 "National Novel Writing Month is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing. Participants begin writing November 1. The goal is to write a 175-page (50,000-word) novel by midnight, November 30."

So I decided to register with them and take on the challenge.  I made my profile and novel description: http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/user/641593 . And that's regardless of the fact that I will be working in November, probably teaching Advanced Grammar and Writing class and being buried under the piles of students' essays, housework, and wifely duties.  Hey, what doesn't kill me - makes me stronger, right?

What's the most fascinating is that people actually DO finish their novels in 30 days, and they DO publish them (albeit after numerous editing). With the REAL publishers like RANDOM HOUSE and HARPER COLLINS!  And even though my novel is not a romance, but bravely self-appointed into the genre of literary fiction, I hope it will find its publisher too.

What I need now is a writer's prayer.  And Holy %^&*, I just found one online:
http://www.inspirationforwriters.com/writinglife/prayer.html

AMEN