Oh-Oh! It's NaBloPoMo!

As I glance at my atomic clock, the time reads 12:05am, and I can now state that I am officially in over my head.

For those of you who aren't aware, or haven't seen my badge proudly displayed in the sidebar, it's NaBloPoMo!

("huh?" you ask.)

National. Blog. Posting. Month.

The rules, as they say, are simple. Post every day during the month of November. For those of you who know the frequency with which I've been posting lately, it's easy to agree that while I'm 6'4", the hole I've dug myself by attempting to participate in this "contest" is perhaps nine or ten feet deep. Way...waaayyy...over my head.

I've talked a little bit in the past about NaNoWriMo, which is the thing that started all this nonsense. National Novel Writing Month was founded by a freelance writer from San Francisco, who, along with a few friends, decided to write a 50,000-word novel in a month. No editing, no cares about plot or structure. Just write, just write, just write...and when it's over, mine the prose for the nuggets of ideas worth keeping and building upon. Or...if you're really good, give it a quick edit, send it off to a publisher, and sit back and wait for your advance.

NaNoWriMo grew by leaps and bounds each year with the power of The Internets, and while I attempted it a couple years in a row, I usually bombed out by about 10K words. I think the idea is amazing, and Chris Baty (The Man) got a lot of people writing. And for that, he should win a prize. I hope to someday give that a more legitimate shot, and come closer to the 50K finish line.

Enter NaBloPoMo, born last year as far as I'm aware, as an alternative to NaNoWriMo. Same concept, though. A bit of a push to get you writing and keep you writing...an organized event in which your blog comes knockin' on your noggin every day, saying, "hey. remember me? let's get some words down today, buddy." and you're supposed to listen.

After clicking around on the blogroll of last year's participants, I found many who finished, some who were stopped short, and others who posted the occasional entry that said, "I don't know what to post today, but I wanted to sign in and write something. See you tomorrow."

(if I include entries like that during my NaBloPoMo attempt, please take the most venomous verbs you can find, and hurl them at me in the comments section. and call me a cheater.)

Truth be told, with the level of inspiration I've had in the last few months in regard to the writing process, I might be finished by...oh, Monday, perhaps. But I always kept it in my head that this little activity was approaching, and pondered whether or not to make it official by signing up. This year the NaBlo founder has a cool Web site with registrations and forums and other goodies, and I was compelled to join. I signed up late Tuesday night, and was member No. 2870, and as I write these words now, there are 3381 members. So apparently I wasn't the only Last-Minute Larry to add my name and blog to the party.

Being a bit of night owl (ok, fine...I'm an insomniac), I will probably be able to use that to my advantage on this NaBlo quest. You might find me posting at 11pm one night, and then at 12:30am the next "morning." Still within the rules of posting every day, but perhaps a bit of creative clock management coming into play there. (hey, maybe I'll get an NFL coaching job if I do well enough, seeing as how some don't know how to run an efficient two-minute drill.)

I really don't know what to expect over the next month, so I can't give you much of a preview. Maybe I'll post some photo entries, maybe I'll post a couple dozen links some days, I just don't know.

All I know is that my life better get a lot more exciting, and quickly. And if that's not possible, then it's my job to make the mundane seem exciting.

Oh boy. Are we in for a rocky road ahead or what??

One down. Twenty-nine to go.

"Once we discover how to appreciate

the timeless values in our daily experiences,

we can enjoy the best things in life."

—Harry Hepner