Morituri Te Salutant

Today is Halloween. 

This is good. We like Halloween. Spooky, dark, spectral, the forerunner to a colder season spent at home with a mug of something hot and tasty and a nice program on the telly...it brings us many happies.

Also, if you're a writer, it reminds you how it feels to be alive.

To be on fire.

To be unstoppable.

Yes, boys and girls...it's time for NaNoWriMo.

(Go there and set up a profile!)

50,000 words. 30 days. (Or however much you want, from Nov 1 to Nov 30.)

This is the writer's bloodsport. This is the forge, the refiner's flame, the gauntlet. The one obstacle in the Coliseum that the Romans feared so much, they didn't bother letting historians know about it. 

Your mission, Writer, is to enter this gauntlet and slay the beasts within. Only after thirty days of the most brutal trials will you be allowed to exit at the other side, clothed in the pelts of endangered jungle cats, stained with their blood, carrying the wilted pages of a draft in your trembling hands. 

You will be tested.

You will be tried.

You will endure the fear and pressure of a once-great predator in a new and unknown environment.

It will change you.

It is a pathway to powers some consider to be...unnatural.

If you are reading this, it is too late to back out.

You are already committed to this program.

Keep your chin up. Don't be afraid to ask Clint Eastwood Ninja Turtle for help, should you need guidance. 

Every day, you are to report back to Inking Cap. You will find a new blog post recapping the day's events. 

You can leave a note about your word count, something one of your characters did, a joke you thought of, or anything else related to what you wrote that day. The bottom line is, you must return and report.

Enjoy these final dwindling hours, Wrimos. For tomorrow we jump into the frigid unknown.

See you on the other side.