It's been a
while. Too long, really.
Last month, I
participated in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). It was a crazy adventure, but it was so worth
it. I wasn't planning on participating,
but for some reason that is beyond me, I did anyway. I guess I am just a sucker for punishment.
On the morning of
November 1st, I started seeing people tweet about participating in
NaNoWriMo. Now, I did a half NaNoWriMo a
couple of years ago, and it nearly killed me.
Even though the actual challenge is for 50,000 words, I set my own goal
of 25,000. It was the first time I had
written anything of that magnitude, and it was insane. After that, I had no intention of doing it
again. I figured that once was enough,
and that I would write a novel in my own time.
But as I sat at the
kitchen table, having breakfast with my Mom, I started thinking. Our conversation went something like this:
Me: NaNoWriMo starts today.
Mom: Oh, yeah, I guess that is today. You don't really think it's a good idea, do
you? It was almost the death of you
before.
Me: No, I actually don't. It's a terrible idea.
Mom: Okay, good.
But that morning,
something inside me snapped. I had to do
it, I had to do NaNoWriMo. Maybe it was
the writing bug coming back with a vengeance, maybe I truly just lost my mind
for a few minutes. I suspect it was a
combination of the two.
As I sat in school,
I made an account on the NaNoWriMo website.
I wasn't sure what exactly the next month was going to look like, but it
didn't matter to me at that point. But I
started writing, and that block I got about 800 words done. It was not much, but it was a start. I mean, only another… 49,200 words to go? Yes, I definitely lost my mind that day.
When I got home, I
kept writing. It was slow, and kind of
painful, but I was writing. But it
wasn't long before my Mom came to check and see what I was doing. The conversation went a little like this:
Mom: What are you doing, Allie?
Me: Oh, just writing.
Mom: No.
No. You did not seriously sign up
for that, did you?
Me: Well, I made an account today…
Mom: Really?
Really? Why?
Me: I honestly have no idea.
And that was the
truth. I hadn't a clue why I had signed
up for this. The 1667 words that I
needed for the first day were a struggle, but they finally got finished. It felt good to be writing, even though I was
feeling slightly overwhelmed at that point.
How on earth was I going to keep this pace for 30 days straight?
The next few days
went pretty well. I was even 1000 words
ahead of schedule for a few days. It was
only for a few days, though. Because being
me, I caught a horrendous cold just over a week into NaNoWriMo. My word count was so far down for a few days,
I thought I would never get it back.
But in a mad fit of
writing, I wrote 3000 words in one afternoon.
It took me until 11 o'clock at night, but I got myself caught up. Actually, I did that a couple of times. Between being sick, having a wedding to go
to, and a couple other things, I was behind right up until the last day. My family was mentally preparing me for the
fact that I might not make it to the 50,000 word mark. But I was too stubborn to give up, a fact
that I am so thankful for now.
On November 30th, I
wrote 2400 words while still at school.
Actually, it was all in the middle of class. But because of a couple supportive teachers,
who actually encouraged me to write rather than do schoolwork, I managed to
meet the 50,000 word goal. Like I said,
it was in the middle of class. So there
were only two other people in the room when I hit 50,000. I was so thrilled, but there was nobody to
share it with for a while. Most people
Looking back over
the crazy days of November, I am so glad I did NaNoWriMo. Without it, I would likely be in the same
spot as I was in October: having a detailed outline for a novel that was never
written. But now, I have 50,000 words of
a novel. It's not finished, by any
means, but it's getting there. And I
have the winner's certificate to prove it.
Some people would
argue that NaNoWriMo is a terrible way to write. They say that the quality of writing is too
awful, the pressure of writing that much is too much. But I would say that while the challenge is
massive, it works. I have a novel to
show for my hard work. And yes, the
quality is terrible, but I can spend time editing and rewriting. It's all a process.
My sudden fit of
insanity paid off, even if people thought I was crazy right up until the
end. The looks I got when people heard I
was writing 50,000 words in 30 days were hilarious. But it didn't change the fact that I was
going to do it. And I did. So if you think you're too busy to do
something you want to do, you're not. If
I can balance school, family, and piano lessons with writing a novel, you can
do it too. If you want it bad enough,
you will make time for it, even if it
means that you are sleep-deprived and a little crazy for a while.
