more on NaNoWriMo

In an attempt to accomplish many things with a limited amount of time, I have only glanced through the NaNoWriMo.org website. What I gather from it is that the novel writing to take place in November is a fresh story - not some book you are already working on. However, I am considering that I may take the opportunity to commit myself to write 50,000 words for ABR - a book already in the making. Obviously if the rules state that the 50K words are supposed to be a new story, then I will not submit my words in ABR for a word count and thus forfeiting my opportunity to achieve this accomplishment. Although I want very much to do this cool NaNoWriMo thing, I need to stay focused on ABR. So it would hopefully inspire me to do that - knowing that I am amongst a group all attempting to achieve a common goal, and if I work on some other story, then my attention is taken away from ABR. Decisions, decisions. Sometimes I wish someone could just tell me what to do and I just do it. Like, "Cathy, today you have to submit 10 pages to me before you go to bed." Someone to hold me accountable. Preferably someone who pays me. But since I don't like being told what to do, that would be disastrous. I'm such a PITA to myself. I chuckle when I say this - so don't worry that I am discouraged. Humored by myself perhaps, but not discouraged.
Not that I want to get into details, but I do want to share a bit so as to explain my prolonged absence and my lack of writing these past few weeks. I could write for an hour on this topic but really don't want to. The long and short of it is that I have been dealing with some unknown "illness" for weeks - perhaps a couple of months now. If I had to suggest a cause, I would say it mimics Lyme disease - muscle fatigue, general all over fatigue, joint aches, back pain (lower and mid), stomach issues that feel like all my internal organs in my stomach area have been whipped thru a blender and then put back into my body. You get the drift. Per one doctor's recommendation, I started taking vitamin B-12 since my numbers were low for that. It actually is helping with the overall fatigue so I don't constantly feel like I am fighting to get through the day. Not a day has gone by in about 6 weeks that I have not at the least been uncomfortable - for the entire day. At its worst, I reach an acute level of pain usually in my mid back or just an overall ache that brings tears to my eyes. And for those of you who are like me and get curious about this stuff - this all started with a rash around my torso that was diagnosed (although tentatively) as shingles. Anyway, the point of me telling you this is to explain why I have not been focused much on writing, including blog writing. I have had little energy but have continued to work everyday. So I have almost no reserves. Hope I don't sound all whiney (is that how you spell it? - I wish I knew an author so she could help me with my spelling!). I didn't even want to bring all of this up but since I know some people are wondering where the heck I am, I figured this was an opportunity to explain.
And there I go again...rambling on.
It's time to refocus the brain cells and see what the characters in ABR are up.