You’ve got to spend money to make money.

Three Hundred Dollars.  Three HUNDRED Dollars.  THREE HUNDRED DOLLARS!!!

[cue loud explosion and the sound of wet flesh splattering on the ground.]

That “bang and plop” you just heard was my brain.  The three hundred dollars was the new ultra-portable netbook with full-sized keyboard I just bought.

I keep trying to tell myself that this is “an investment” but I’m having a hard time balancing “investment” against “frivolous indulgence” and I guess in some ways I’m just not quite prepared to win that battle in my head yet.

The only way to justify it to myself is to USE it.  If it increases my output, it was worth the money; if it ends up being the writing equivalent of the treadmill in the corner with my clothes hanging on it, then not so much.

As for “using it” I guess the proof needs to be in the measurable output; and this is the month for measurable output.  As some of you know, November is NaNoWriMo month, and as such, I will be participating this year.  Of course, 50,000 words is barely the first third of my outline estimate, so we’ll see how this goes.  I’ll be posting here as close to every day as possible, and I’ll be trying to get some consistent posting frequency going on MyBadPants.com as well…so here’s to hoping this new creation tool will actually help me find opportunities to create!

Stay tuned for more stories from the front lines of NaNoWriMo, some excerpts and example chapters, and then follow along as I decide where to go with this manuscript when it’s finished (even if that’s not in line with the NaNoWriMo end date).

Hopefully this will be interesting, or at least creative.