h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Next-to-last.
It means we're close, but not quite finished yet.
This is when most of us truly see “the light at the end of the tunnel.”
For some of us, it means we are going to obsess with the quality and content of our final Journal Entry.

I'm not certain why, but I know I want my last Journal Entry for the NaJoPoMo month to be something special, to be something inspiring, to be something memorable. It would hearten me to see multiple replies and that there would be further visits to the thread as time goes on. I'd love to see it turn into one of those on-going conversations that people never tire of joining because it holds the essence of ideas we must--each of us--examine, choose, and act upon according to our inner compass.

Fat chance that'll happen, though, since I've simply been sharing a bunch of stuff “off the cuff” in order to fill a Journal Entry every day for one month. Honestly, sharing a bit more of my mind with y'all was the sole motivation--well, that and the potential garnering of a cool prize--for writing the postings. Okay, not solely. I also wanted to see if I could actually keep up a pace of writing whereby I cranked out at least a certain minimum amount of verbiage. My thinking was that if I can do so for simple Journal Entries, then I can do it for writing the novels and short stories that have been languishing for lack of regular attention. What I wanted to accomplish was to use NaJoPoMo as a springboard to get back to work on “My Manuscripts” on a daily schedule. And...I believe it's helped. I'm doing it.

Here's another bit of impetus for me to do so. You'll chuckle at this, I'm sure, because I bet none of you have seen me as the competitive sort. For games and such I get into the whole team spirit mentality, or the equally enticing one-on-one grudge match action. So when my wife, A---, (who has never really been one to write anything more than a letter to a family member) signed up for NaNoWriMo, I felt the initial rush of competitive spirit stirring in me. She would write an approximately 50,000-word novel (or at least a rough draft) and I would churn out at least a page-a-day-for-a-month. Now, I recognize the two projects don't truly equate in volume of verbiage required for each, but the challenge of writing ~something~ every day was close enough for me.

She's shared her progress with me and read sections of her story to me after I've come home from work; I’ve made copies of all my Journal Entries (smileys and all) and let her read them at her leisure. We've both been pleasantly surprised by each other's work. I've encouraged and admonished her to keep going; she's pointed out small errors in my texts and also adjured me to get back on the road to publishing something. Two disparate souls with differing viewpoints, yet we can have a synergy of affect on one another. And all of this is causing more writing.

So...what's my penultimate task at hand? Finish NaJoPoMo and move smoothly into my own personal NaNoWriMo. I'm certain A--- will spur me on to finish what I’ve started; she's been after me for a couple of years to do so, anyway. But now... Well, I have a raison d'etre. It's another competition!

B4iadmitthatisimplydobetterwithotherpeoplegoadingmeon

Good for A. And hooray for there being only one more of these to go. You may switch over immediately to NaNoWriMo, but I'm going to take a break.