Not today, NaNoWriMo!

I had all kinds of excuses, last month, for not even thinking about doing National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) this year, which is partly why I have been quiet for a while.  I took on a new part time job, and I have been babysitting my favorite four year old. Enough, already. But then, due to a series of quasi-connected events, it became obvious to me that there is a novel struggling to get out, and I have to write it, starting now!

The premise of NaNoWriMo is to write a 50,000 word first draft of a novel during the month of November, which works out to roughly 1,660 words per day. I have written about the experience in previous blog posts, and what happened in my case, that the rushing through to get my count in, ended in a mess I didn't want to turn in to a second draft. So, the whole thing hid out under my bed for two years, until I started this blog, and made an unsuccessful attempt to revise it.

Never one to be brought down for too long, the "nano"  particles, thought buds,  have been busy swirling around in my head for a couple of weeks now. If I had to list them, it would look something like, bigotry disguised as religion, Pride Fest mom hugs, a book on finding your inner superhero, and, a succession of dreams about being a writing tutor on an exotic island. Makes perfect sense, right?

Here's what I will tell you - (and what I told my son) - I have finally started to pay attention to clues I give off. Pay attention to yours, and a pattern may start to immerge. I don't know if it helped or hurt that my favorite four year old passed on a really severe flu-like illness to me during which I was possibly hallucinating. I guess in art there is bound to be some suffering.  I am starting to feel better, thanks.

Last word -- I really think NaNoWriMo can be useful for some writers, but this time around, I'd like to try setting my own pace  (maybe around 1000 words a day), not falling into the trap of scrambling to get my word count in, just to be able to buy the winner's teeshirt. This year, I feel as if I have already won, in having a story that I birthed inside my feverish brain, that has to come out, one way or another.