10 Days Until Madness Begins

Madness being NaNoWriMo.  It will be my 7th year trying.  Will this year be any different?  I don't know. 
I was on the fence about it...do I or don't I?  The next thing I know, I find myself changing my facebook cover photo and profile picture to reflect NaNo; making a new song list; thinking about my options for what to write.  Do I go back and once again try to work on my original NaNo story?  Do I work on one of the ideas that I've been scribbling about here and there as they pop into my head?  OR Do I try to create something totally fresh and new?  Which of course I have no clue what I would do, LOL.

I'd like to do some planning, but I'm really not a planner/outliner type person.  I know everyone has their own methods that work for them.  My first character, I didn't build her or plan her she was just there.  The only thing she really lacks is a name.  I've never been quite happy with her name, something about it just doesn't fit right and I haven't found something that does yet.  I have tried the planning of characters part, but then I just seem to get hung up on details or try to force things and then they just go away.  I need to work on my relationship with them, don't ya think?  I sometimes think I just try too hard!

Either way, I usually end up getting frustrated or sidetracked.  Then I end up falling behind.  Eventually I realize I won't catch up and then I end up give up on the project.  I want it to be different this time.  Part of me is thinking that maybe, instead of focusing on word count that I should focus on just getting stuff written.  No matter how much or how little.  But just get it written.  If I can do that the entire month I'd call it a win even if it isn't 50,000 words.  At least I can say wrote the entire month, so what if it might only be 300 or 500 words a day.

If only some how I can turn my traumas and past into a story of survival.  But when you're mind set is elves, faeries and dragons...how do you spin it?