I have embarked on a new adventure. One that has the capability takes me to worlds far different from our own. But unlike reading, I can control where I want to go and what the outcome is.
A long time ago, okay maybe not that long ago, I used to write. A lot. But life happened and I had less time and less motivation. I was in school at the time and had plenty of mental stimulation and there was simply no need to add more. So I stopped writing. I still read a lot, that is one thing I can never stay away from for very long.
While being a mom provides me with lots to do and uses plenty of creativity, it doesn’t exactly provide me with the mental stimulation I crave. I tried reading books off of ivy league college reading lists, something I do almost every summer, and that too failed to provide me with enough mental stimulation to keep me occupied. So I began searching for something that would provide me with an escape into my mind. Something that would let me learn about a varaity of subjects and satisfy my need for knowledge of random usually unusable facts. That is when heard about NaNoWriMo, aka National Novel Writing Month. It is a month long event in November, in which writers from around the world and wannabe writers from around the world begin and complete a 50,000 (est. 145 page) novel. If you finish you are conisdered a winner. For me, this was the perfect reason to begin to write again. Well, to be honest, that and the fact that I have a few characters running around in my head that refuse to stay in my dreams.
Let me explain that last sentence. I am not crazy. I dream about random people who I have never meet. I call these people characters. If they really catch my attention when I wake up I continue to create stories around them, in my head. Its like playing a movie in my head. Sure it probably sounds weird, but it is a fun escape into the world of day dreams. Recently I have had more and more dreams about different characters who have stuck with me.
Anyhow, I have begun this fun annual event and thus far I am nearly halfway through, 43%, to be exact. To my suprise, I am actually LEARNING more than just random facts that are needed to make my story logical and somewhat realistic. I am learning what works and what does, in the world of writing. My writing it’s self has improved, and I am gaining more confidence in my abilty to complete this project. I am really hoping that I will complete it, just to prove that I can, in fact, finish a story. In the past I have always written 2 or 3 kick ass chapters then abandoned whatever it was that I was working on. This time I am not giving myself that option. In fact, I have decided that I don’t care how much the story sucks as long as I finish it. I can always go back and edit it and add and subtract things to make it better.
For all of you who have never heard of this wonderful phenomenon called NaNoWriMo, I highly suggest googling it and checking it out…it is quite enjoyable. Also, there is a young writers addition, in which the child can pick a word count that they deem to be difficult for their level of writing and then try to meet it by the end of the month. Personally, I can say this is a wonderful learning experience for both young and old!
