November is National Novel Writing Month, and for the community of the web site NaNoWriMo.org it's time to put your money where your mouth is, pen to paper, and verbally gush at least 150 pages of a novel. These brave (or insane) souls try to complete and entire novel within 30 days. For others, it's an exercise in insanity, finding the time to fold laundry, watch a movie you've been meaning to watch, clean the house madly, and stare at the blank computer screen, doing anything and everything they can to avoid writing their novel.

This is my second year attempting something that seems insurmountable to me. I love to write, but I've never completed a novel. I started my first novel, Ophelia, when I was 14 and in the 9th grade. I never finished. I'm up to around 30 chapters and I'm still not done. I don't think I ever figured out how to end it, plus the older I got, the more I matured as a writer and had to keep going back to rewrite and edit earlier incarnations. Last year I tried to write an homage to Jack Keruak's On The Road. Alas, I got nowhere fast. I had a great excuse though, I had a roommate kick me out. Homelessness has got to be a great excuse for not being able to complete a novel, right?

Anyways, this year I'm sitting at my laptop in a Panera cafe, and once again, instead of writing my novel, I'm blogging. Great. Wish blogging would equal a novel at some point. I digress, if you're in the mood to write a novel, think you've got Shakespears balls, check it out! You've got 24 days left!