NaNoWriMo

So after a couple of years of hearing about it, but sitting on the sidelines, I've finally decided to participate in NaNoWriMo. 


For those of you who don't know what NaNoWriMo is...


"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."


Good thing I have no IDEA what I want to write! 


Writing a novel should be no big deal, right? Goodness knows I can never shut up, and all my blogs are too long for the average reader to want to bother with. 


But rambling endlessly on a blog is totally different than trying to write a novel. I mean, I know I'm an interesting character and all, but god knows the storyline of my life is full of plot holes, loose ends, and requires a good deal of suspension of disbelief. 


I probably shouldn't have decided to do this without a clear plan in mind, but then, maybe figuring it out along the way is half the fun. 


At the end of the day, there's a lot of things I'm trying to take my mind off of lately, so I figured a new place to channel my energy would be good. 


Have you ever participated in NaNoWriMo? Where did you find your inspiration? Did you reach your 50,000 word goal? Were you ashamed of the resulting manuscript, or were you a total badass who managed to get it published?


~Jessica