My NaNo is going really quite well. I've written 34,000 words, so 14,000 to go between now and the end of November. Writing urban fantasy is an interesting experience – this is unlike anything I've written before, and I feel it's been gruelling in parts because I don't know the genre well and don't know its conventions. In a way, perhaps that is an advantage, because I think "Where shall I go from here?" and work it out for myself without knowing what the normal conventions are. For a while, the book morphed into misery memoirs and then became quite thriller-like, so it's a bit of a genre-bender. But as I get farther through it, I realise that when I rewrite I probably will be able to do something decent with it. The length's good for a YA novel, and the plot's worked out well from the bare-bones idea I had, and I've come a long way in the past week, having fallen behind in week 2 and wondering if I should give up. So I'm happy with this.

We've had some hot weather lately, and I'd forgotten how exhausting it can be – and how distracting it is when the fire siren goes off on a total fire ban day and you hear fire trucks racing along the road. I think everyone in fire-prone areas feels more nervous this summer as a result of what happened last summer. We're now involved in a newly established fireguard community group though, and have attended some informative sessions as a result of that. It's been good meeting some new people and getting to know others better.

Ju Gosling from Bettany Press is here in Australia for three weeks and attending the NCC Victoria meeting tomorrow. We're also having a meeting about my books in a couple of weeks' time. While we could actually do with a bit of rain, it's nice for visitors from the northern hemisphere to enjoy some sunshine, so perhaps sunny days with overnight rain would be nice.

A good start today - 2000 words. Especially good as it's been really hot weather and we were away for the weekend - though not for a long weekend, sadly, as neither my husband nor my son have a day off tomorrow (it's Cup Day, so a public holiday on Tuesday). 

So 48,000 to go.

Earlier tonight, I signed up for NaNoWriMo 2009. For those who haven't heard of NaNoWriMo, it's a US-established but worldwide writing lark, whereby you have to write 50,000 words in exactly one month (that month being November; it's an annual event). I wrote the first draft of To All Appearance, Dead for NaNo 2005, so I know it's a good idea to do it. I just haven't done it since. But a few people from my R/L writing group are doing it, so we can support each other, and I'm sure there'll be others from LJ communities/GO communities who'll be doing it as well. At the moment, I've no idea if November will be busy or not workwise for me, but I was actually super-busy in November 2005, and I still managed it, so there are no excuses really.

I just have to decide what I'm going to write, but there are four weeks to think about that before NaNo starts. And if I complete NaNo, that'll mean I'll have written drafts of three novels in four months, which is no bad thing. It's always good to have first drafts to polish, improve and rewrite.

Is anyone else from my flist doing NaNo this year?