Nanowrimo....and other jabberwocky phrases

It's just three days away, the 1700 word a day challenge that both excites and intimidates me.

What IS NaNoWriMo?

It stands for National Novel Writing Month. Each November, authors and would be authors across the world begin a quest. To write a novel in just 30 days. Not a paragraph. No. We are to write a 50,000 word novel of our choice in the time given. Starting midnight on November 1, the words start hitting the screens. Gibberish or not, the goal is to not create the next great American novel. The goal is to simply write. If we write, the creators say, we will simply become better writers. We gain the habit of writing. The skill of putting ideas on the page/screen. No matter how poorly or expertly we do it, all we need to do is to simply write them. And again, I shall try to do so. That is why I am writing this blog, you see. Not so much just to blog, but to start getting my mind wrapped around the idea of thirty days of my wife screaming at me for sitting at the computer rather than  help with dishes. Of the kids climbing on my lap trying to get me to pay attention to them instead of the screen. Even though I have tried to do this three times in years past, having failed each time, I still am finding myself tentatively excited at the thought of beginning in three days.

Why, if I know I have failed before, am I so excited to do so this time? It's simple. This time, I have an idea. Nearly twenty years ago, I woke up in the middle of the night with the idea for a novel. So vivid was the idea in my mind that I could not return to bed. I fired up a very old college computer, which sat in the living room of my house, and sat in front of the green glow of the screen typing until the sun rose. But it never took off since then. I have added research to the idea, have worked on characters, but have never moved forward with it beyond the idea phase. Not because it's a bad idea. I haven't proceeded with it because it IS such a good idea. I have to plan it out properly. I have to get my characters fleshed out. I need to work on how the storyline will go. And while this could begin with NaNoWriMo, it certainly would not end there.

A few years ago, when I first tried this daunting task, that was what I tried to do. I tried to take my novel idea from decades before and turn it into something real. But I found myself backing up because I didnt think that character should go that way. I would delete pages because I didn't like how the dialogue went. In other words, I spent too much time editing my work instead of just getting it all on paper. So long have I had these people in my head that I protected them like my own children. So the next year, I tried to go from scratch. To simply put ideas down and get to 50,000. But life got in the way. Kids fell apart, spouse fell apart, work fell apart. So I only got a few thousand words before I gave up.

But this time, this year, it will be different. For this time, I witnessed in real life what is going to be the foundation of my story. Something so bizarre, and so pivotal that it would only seem real in a work of fiction. Yet it was not fiction. It was real. It happened. And it happened in front of my eyes. Instantly, I saw the story potential. I imagined my lead character. I imagined his protagonist. I saw the development of the twists and turns that will make it exciting, that will keep the reader turning the page. As it unfolded, I saw how that person would become a sub character. How this one would have a back story. How the details of what they drove became important. The style of their hair appearing from thin air. So this time, I am ready. 1700 words a day? HA I cant imagine stopping before 2,000.

Come on November 1st.

I got your number.....and it's five digits.

www.nanowrimo.org