Like I’m not busy enough this summer, I answered a call from a journalist who was looking for creative ways to be productive at an unfulfilling job.

You guys know me. You know what I had to say.

But go check it out anyway. And, of course, do the upvoting thing and all that.

As always, send your friends my way. I’ve got a college tuition to pay, a research trip to Yellowstone, my mortgage… and besides, the busier I am editing, the less trouble I get myself into, and while my adventures are fun and make great stories — my attorney told me a couple weeks ago that she misses hearing them — staying out of trouble for the next couple of months is a good choice. At least until I’m sure the college kid isn’t going to follow in my footsteps. Too much.

It’s November, the time of year when the Movemeber people are growing mustaches and the writerly types are busy pounding out 50,000 word manuscripts they hope to turn into books of some sort (of high caliber).

Okay, being a woman, you can probably figure out why I’m not part of Movember. No, it’s NOT rampant upper-lip hair that is the reason I am so camera-shy. (Sorry to those of you who thought otherwise. Shut up, Will. You’ve met me; you ought to know better.)

Which leaves NaNo. NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month. As I said, it’s the time of year when writers of all sorts — published, unpublished, even some best-sellers — write a draft of a new novel. And after my fabulous sales success last month with Trevor’s Song, you’d think I’d be hot to use NaNo as a way to follow up with something even better.

So why isn’t Susan NaNoing?

Well, first, there’s the little issue of Susan the Editor continuing to wear the primary hat in these parts. Business remains good, so thanks to you who use me as your editor and those of you who refer your friends to me. I’ve got open spaces at the tail end of the month, and in December (and beyond).

That’s good for any of you who are actually doing NaNo. Revise your books and send ’em my way. I’d be glad to help you turn them into something truly amazing.

Yes, the editing business is good. But that doesn’t explain why I’ve done done NaNo twice: a winning project in 2003 and an unfinished work in 2005. Why go out on the downer note of a quitter?

Because the one thing that was reinforced to me both years was that… when I write like that, I write crap. My childish, innocent side comes out more than my dark side does, and all you who love Trevor know how much fun my dark side is. I can’t even say that it’s okay, in this era when Young Adult is still the hot genre of the moment (although it’s cooling a bit), to let that young side out.

That young side? It’s too young to be allowed to develop a plot. It does okay (not great. No Trevors in sight) with characterization and pacing, but plot? Oy. Man, the stuff I came up with those two years… teenage fantasy ain’t got nothin’ on the stupid shit I cooked up in pursuit of what eventually got shoved under the bed. It was barely salvageable, and I do mean barely. You’d think I’d never gone outside or lived in a city, it was that bad. Naive. Juvenile. Embarrassing.

And it got trashed as soon as the month was over. Heck, with the second attempt, I didn’t even wait for the month to be over. I just said it was crap and I had better things to do than write crap.

While it’s more than acceptable to give ourselves permission to write crap — sometimes, it’s entirely necessary to the process — I decided it wasn’t okay for me to give up a month writing stuff so bad, all I’d take out of those two experiences was ONE character. ONE. That’s not a very good return on investment. It’s not even a BAD return on the investment. It’s DREADFUL.

So… no NaNo here. In its simplest form, it doesn’t work for me. And that’s okay. Everyone’s process is different. This is part of what makes the world the wonderful place it is. We all have our things that work, and our things that don’t.

Which now begs the question of what I AM writing, and when you’ll get to see it. After all, I’ve got readers to keep happy after that sales spike last month.

The answer to that remains simple: sales spike or no, my royalties aren’t paying the bills yet. Editing still does.

Guess we’ll all have to remain patient and see.