It's November 1st.
In addition to being exactly 1 week before this oh-so-painful election is over (Oh, who am I kidding? It’s not really going to be over, is it?!), a day of sugar hangovers for all who were foolish enough to buy candy they actually like, so were tempted (or forced, as it may well have felt) to keep eating it while answering doorbells or waiting for them to ring; it's also the start of National Novel Writing Month, NaNoWriMo, to those in the know.
Today more than 400,000 people living in places around the world will write the first of the 50,000 words they've committed to write during the month of November.
I'll be one of those 400,000 people.
Many who take the NaNoWriMo challenge are fiction writers, and do draft novels. Yesterday, I learned that more than 400 traditionally published novels started as NaNoWriMo books/drafts - and that figure doesn't include the hundreds more that have been self-published!
But there are no NaNo Police, and there's no rule that says you have to draft a novel, or even write fiction.
Believing in "the transformative power of creativity," the NaNoWriMo mission, is to "provide structure, community, and encouragement to help people find their voices, achieve creative goals, and build new worlds—on and off the page.”
To the 21 twenty somethings who started this in San Francisco in 1999, I say "Thanks!" Perhaps most of all, "thanks for the structure." As much as I resist it, I do know how helpful it is (Just don't show me the edges, 'cause then I'll surely find myself pushing against them!)
This is my second NaNoWriMo.
Last year, I allowed myself to write whatever I wanted. I committed to writing the 50,000 words in 30 days, but allowed myself to write anything felt like writing or just came to me when I took my writing seat. Some days I wrote was poetry, some days I wrote prose. Some days I wrote fiction, and some days I wrote non. Some days my writing was more journal entry than anything formal, organized or intentional.
It didn't matter to me. My goal was 50,000 words in 30 days - to put my butt in a chair and my words on a page, day after day after day. That was it. And that was enough.
I haven't read many of those 50, 497 words I wrote last year. Someday, I’ll go back, and comb through all those pages. When I do, I suspect I’ll find something in there I’d like to revisit, revise, and perhaps allow to see the light of day. But last year, it wasn't about what I wrote, just that I wrote.
This year it’s different. I'm a bit different, at least in a different place. So this year, I'm eager to use NaNoWriMo for a different purpose.
It's been six years since I left my job, put my things in storage, and went for what turned out to be a longer drive than I ever could have imagined. For all intents and purposes, I'm still driving. But there's an intersection up ahead, a place where paths I've traveled converge.
And I find, I now have so much to say and to share and to discuss and to consider - about where I was and where I am and how I got from one place to the other and what I learned along the way and what it all means or might mean - for me personally, and maybe for others as well.
So this year, I'm using NaNoWriMo to help me begin the process.
I've prepared a list of topics and starting points to use to guide my daily writing. An essay a day, for thirty days. That's the plan.
A few friends believe (hope?) that I'm starting the book for which they've been waiting. I'm not making that commitment. I'm not attaching to that. I'm going to just show up, engage fully, and let go!
I’ll keep you posted.
In addition to being exactly 1 week before this oh-so-painful election is over (Oh, who am I kidding? It’s not really going to be over, is it?!), a day of sugar hangovers for all who were foolish enough to buy candy they actually like, so were tempted (or forced, as it may well have felt) to keep eating it while answering doorbells or waiting for them to ring; it's also the start of National Novel Writing Month, NaNoWriMo, to those in the know.
Today more than 400,000 people living in places around the world will write the first of the 50,000 words they've committed to write during the month of November.
I'll be one of those 400,000 people.
Many who take the NaNoWriMo challenge are fiction writers, and do draft novels. Yesterday, I learned that more than 400 traditionally published novels started as NaNoWriMo books/drafts - and that figure doesn't include the hundreds more that have been self-published!
But there are no NaNo Police, and there's no rule that says you have to draft a novel, or even write fiction.
Believing in "the transformative power of creativity," the NaNoWriMo mission, is to "provide structure, community, and encouragement to help people find their voices, achieve creative goals, and build new worlds—on and off the page.”
To the 21 twenty somethings who started this in San Francisco in 1999, I say "Thanks!" Perhaps most of all, "thanks for the structure." As much as I resist it, I do know how helpful it is (Just don't show me the edges, 'cause then I'll surely find myself pushing against them!)
This is my second NaNoWriMo.
Last year, I allowed myself to write whatever I wanted. I committed to writing the 50,000 words in 30 days, but allowed myself to write anything felt like writing or just came to me when I took my writing seat. Some days I wrote was poetry, some days I wrote prose. Some days I wrote fiction, and some days I wrote non. Some days my writing was more journal entry than anything formal, organized or intentional.
It didn't matter to me. My goal was 50,000 words in 30 days - to put my butt in a chair and my words on a page, day after day after day. That was it. And that was enough.
I haven't read many of those 50, 497 words I wrote last year. Someday, I’ll go back, and comb through all those pages. When I do, I suspect I’ll find something in there I’d like to revisit, revise, and perhaps allow to see the light of day. But last year, it wasn't about what I wrote, just that I wrote.
This year it’s different. I'm a bit different, at least in a different place. So this year, I'm eager to use NaNoWriMo for a different purpose.
It's been six years since I left my job, put my things in storage, and went for what turned out to be a longer drive than I ever could have imagined. For all intents and purposes, I'm still driving. But there's an intersection up ahead, a place where paths I've traveled converge.
And I find, I now have so much to say and to share and to discuss and to consider - about where I was and where I am and how I got from one place to the other and what I learned along the way and what it all means or might mean - for me personally, and maybe for others as well.
So this year, I'm using NaNoWriMo to help me begin the process.
I've prepared a list of topics and starting points to use to guide my daily writing. An essay a day, for thirty days. That's the plan.
A few friends believe (hope?) that I'm starting the book for which they've been waiting. I'm not making that commitment. I'm not attaching to that. I'm going to just show up, engage fully, and let go!
I’ll keep you posted.
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