If you read my previous post, you know that NaNoWriMo is upon us!  I want to assure my tens of readers that my participation in that will not slow down blog entries at all.  I’ve found, as have other writers have, that the more I write the more I am able to write, limited only by the number of hours in the day.  So the posts will still happen, though individual posts may be a bit shorter for the next month.

But, lucky you!  I’ll also share the odd (and I promise they’ll be odd) excerpts from my burgeoning novel, and you can track my progress.  If you want to follow my progress throughout the month, you can check me out through my NaNoWriMo profile.  And to celebrate my fresh start, here is a small excerpt from today’s writing:

Sighing, Michael drew a red line through another few lines of text. In the margin he scribbled some notes for the paper’s author, and flipping to the front page jotted down a grade and further comments. “Not your best work, I expect better next time.” Did he, though?

Michael rubbed his eyes, and then stared at the still unmarked pile of student essays. How many more times am I going to write this tonight, he wondered, not for the first time. That familiar thought led his mind to consider how many times he had already written that same comment, but as always he gave up on the tally. Too many students with too many papers over so many years… Such was the lot of an English professor. He could always switch credentials, move to another town, teach something else at another university. Math, maybe, or psychology. Not history, of course; that would be a little too “on the nose”. But surely another identity would be less work than this…

Sighing again, Michael reached for the next paper in the stack. No, that is just my poor lazy brain talking. I have a nice life here despite my whining. If grading papers is the worst thing I have to put up with today, the day is pretty damn good.

In one of life’s little joking moments, that was when the bullet smashed through the office window.

And so on.  Michael’s adventures will continue through the month, and we’ll see where this crazy ride takes me.  I do have an outline, but sometimes the outline comes off the rails due to inspiration and I think this may end up being the case.  Stay tuned to see.

If you are taking part in NaNoWriMo, come be my Writing Buddy; you can find me as RenaissanceDork on the site or follow the link above.  The more support/peer pressure we have the better chance we have of finishing, so let me hear from you!

Have a comment about NaNoWriMo? Want to tell me that my excerpt is a) awesome or b) fantastic? Comments are just below…