Nanowrimo

Hibernation is a wonderful concept. I often think when it's cold outside that I'd like to just snooze the winter away. The temperature fell to minus three the week before last so the snails all had to come in from the cold. They were eating less and less outside so they'd stopped growing. Most are now crated up in my outhouse for the winter, but at the moment it is quite mild so they aren't asleep and probably wondering what's going on. It is only Autumn really and a wonderful one too with strong autumn colour on the trees.

And for me Nanowrimo is here! Let me explain: November is National Novel Writing Month and this year I have joined. I've cleared my desk and set myself the target of writing 50,000 words in November - that's 1666 words a day. I'm not writing a novel I have to confess: 'Of Molluscs and Me' is all about setting up and running the snail farm. I've been working on it for years a bit at a time but this is my chance to really get to grips with it. It's ages since I last spent any good length of time on it and I have to write about all the things that have happened this summer.

The clocks changing last weekend made things easier as I'm a morning person and I still wake according to the old time. If I start writing by 7.15 and eat breakfast at the same time, I can get my word count done by 8.30 or so and then get on with the rest of the day. What I've found is that when I write early like this, and resist the temptation to look at my emails first, my brain is still in the right mode to free write. It's like limbering up - going for a mental jog - so much better for my knees than a real one! Then I go on thinking of ideas during the day and jot things down as they come into my head. I've found less need to have the radio on once my brain is in writing mode. So here's to National Novel Writers everywhere!