I signed up for National Novel Writing Month... and I've written no words.

FAIL.

I first heard about National Novel Writing Month from a girl that I sat next to on a packed Amtrak from New York Penn Station to Rome, New York. Haven't heard of it? That's okay. Closest destination? The saddest casino.

It's always a toss up on whether or not I'm feeling chatty, but usually I'm interested in learning about new people. It's been a few months now - I can say honestly that I don't remember too much about the girl that sat next to me except for the fact that we were able chat genially for 3 hours in crazy New York thunderstorms. She was originally from California, attended Hamilton College a few years after I graduated school, and she was a creative writing major. 

Together, we spoke about her writing schedule, which fed into my childhood aspirations of being an author and making it, through words alone. From the years of 10-15, I briefly entertained being a famous author, Tom Clancy style. I won some local creative writing contests in Georgia, but thinking back on it, I don't know if they were anything to remember. 

The idea of a bunch of people trying to write a 50k word novel over the course of a month intrigued me, so I made sure to pencil in that NaNoWriMo started Nov 1 (Hello Kitty's birthday). 

Courtesy of Nanowritmo.org. Yes, this s a writing coat of arms. It's awesomely nerdy. 

It's been 9 days in. I've signed on. My word count is 0. I need to write about something I know. 

Here are 7 topics that I've thought about writing about:

1. The trial and tribulations of being a shopaholic (it's been done, search Sophie Kinsella, then read Can you keep a secret - hilarious and the last book that I bought in England) - I may call this one, the Art of the Squeal. - is it squeal-worthy? HA! In the time that you were weighing whether or not it was squealworthy, I've bought it and shipped it to my office.
2. The trials and tribulations of being a 20 something girl in San Francisco (I think this could be thought provoking - mostly about budgeting, fighting debtors, always thinking about switching jobs to make more money... maybe it'll be called Reasons by Christine - a daily journal entry on how I reason myself into taking a car to work/ eat carbs/ not go to the gym/ read NYmag for too long/ eating another Jimmy John's sandwich/ not cleaned my room/ bought another pair of shoes
3. How being a Southern girl out of the South is the best kind of girl - it's true. All my best friends have been positively influenced by the South. 
4. A romance novel from the Regency era (would require some research, clearly, my main character Lavinia is going to be a bitch with a heart of gold that falls in love with a Duke. If you read romance novels, you know that NO HEROINE is ever named Lavinia, because that's a mean pointy name..)
5. 50k words of anxiety ridden To-Do Lists
6. 50k words on why I've not gone to the gym in SO LONG but yet keep paying for it.
7. 50k words on worthy crafts to complete

If you think that any of these are compelling, I urge you to comment to me, and my goal is actually get started writing in about 4 days. Let's be real - 30 days is too many days for a procrastinator like me. I can do it in 15.