The working title of my book is �The Cons of Lawn,� and it�s about these convicts who go to a nearby university each Tuesday afternoon to do landscaping as part of repaying their debt to society.

Last night I started character diamonds (a technique to outline traits used to develop more interesting and consistent characters) for the novel�s four characters, and I have half of the storyline involving one of the characters. I have to write more tonight to get things ready. I have four pages of notes so far, and I need more than 20.

In an effort to understand how much time this was going to take, I timed myself writing a one-page story last night, including the bathroom break and water refill I took in the estimate. To type about 500-600 words, it took me 25 minutes. Seeing that there�s a 50,000 word goal, that�s a whole lot of writing.

In addition to the timing exercise, I needed to determine how many days I actually had to write. They say I have 30, but they�re a bit off according to my schedule. I have a budget meeting for my condo association one night, cutting the writing days to 29. That�s fine, no big deal.

Then I also remembered that I�m reinstating Third Thursdays, my girls night in night where I host dinner and we all sit around my place and chat. This cuts my writing days down to 28 days.

Although I�m all cool with pretending it�s a February NaNoWriMo, I then remembered that my brother is coming to visit for ten days. Although I�m very much looking forward to him being here, this is going to cut into my writing time quite a bit.

So 25 minutes to write 500 words or one page (we�re shoot conservatively here), and we�re looking at needing 2500 minutes to write. That�s a little under 42 hours to write a crappy novel.

So if I start off dedicating 2 hours per day to this, remembering to overcompensate for the days I go out boozing or the nights I snuggle with Benito and always have my laptop with me, this is do-able.

I already feel a cold sore forming, and it�s not even begun!

Really though, this should be a fun project. It�ll be weird to be as wordy as possible since my job entails being as succinct as possible, changing �so that� into �so�, �in order to� into �to�, and �as well as� into �and�. I�ll just have to remember to forget all of the things that I remember. (If that makes any sense...)

And since it�s already so late and I�m ready to get home so I can workout and then write some more storyline material for my NaNoWriMo masterpiece, here�s today�s quickies:

Let�s give a big HAPPY BIRTHDAY shout out to Autumn-kitty who is like a good whiskey, getting better as she ages!

Let�s give FortWorthGuy a big pat on the back for paying off his entire car note! And then another pat on the back for getting into SMU�s MBA program and having it all paid for!

In the spirit of linking those who are also seeking to accomplish craziness this November (no, I�m not looking at you George Bush and John Kerry), many props to MissPinkKate and Dani-pilgrim for also partaking in NaNoWriMo! Please let me guestbook know about your book.

And finally, I�d like to issue another reminder that AZ-Amber is raising money for the Phoenix Holy Cross Associates to travel to other locations to spread the good word there. Just click the link and help that sista out with your purchase.

All right everyone. I�m outta here. I�ve just been informed that I�m watching a movie tonight with two friends, and I still need to workout, shower, and eat some dinner.

G�nite all. �