To NaNoWriMo Or Not To NaNoWriMo?

First of all, congratulations to Kim Holliday, who won the crochet pumpkin I was giving away as part of the Snarkology Halloween Hop.

I’m writing this Sunday night, November 1, 2015.  I am attempting to figure out if I am going to participate on NaNoWriMo this year, or if I’m going to ignore it.

I have a lot of  reasons to not participate.  November is a stressful time for me.  My family celebrates Thanksgiving, and because of my mother’s health issue, it will be falling to me to do the meal preparation this year.  There is also my birthday.  Also, the anniversary of my father’s death, which is always a crapshoot as to whether it sends me spiraling into a depression. I have several Christmas presents I need to complete. The wordcount required to complete the challenge is about three times my normal output and will be a source of stress.  Adding to that stress is the fact that I am starting late in the day, so I’m not sure I’m going to make wordcount for today.

On the plus side, I can knock out either a decent novella or the first half of a novel.  It would be a way to get me writing more.  This would be first draft stuff that will never see the light of day, but it would give me things to focus instead of obsessing over three short stories I’m waiting to hear back on.

So I’m going to be giving it a try.  Now I just have to figure out which project to work on.