Rethinking NaNoWriMo

I participated in NaNoWriMo—that crazy, madcap month when anyone can become a novelist—for nine years running. Starting when my son was nine months old, corralled in a playpen beside the laptop, and continuing until he was in the third grade, I set aside every November to write a novel. I wrote through everything. I wrote while packing to move to Seattle. I wrote while temporarily living in a business hotel in Cincinnati. I wrote while recovering from swine flu-induced pneumonia. Last year, in what would have been my tenth anniversary with NaNoWriMo, I stopped.

I had a good reason, though I didn’t write about it at the time. My mom had breast cancer and her surgery was at the beginning of November. I couldn’t, I decided, do everything. It was a relief. After nine years of trying every which way to write a novel in a month, it felt amazing to actually live through a November, to experience it like a normal person. Well, like a normal person helping her mother recover from a mastectomy, but a normal person, nonetheless.

As November approached this year, I thought a lot about writing my tenth novel. I love NaNoWriMo. I love being part of an event where writing takes first priority. Writing is glamorous during NaNoWriMo. It’s social. It’s trendy. It’s a lot of things that writing usually isn’t at all. NaNoWriMo is compelling. It’s also transient. It involves a lot of writing just to write and a lot of words that go on the page for the sole purpose of being words on the page. After 450,000 of those words, I think it’s time for me to move on.

This November, I’ll be writing. Oh yes, I’ll be writing, but I’ll be writing at my own pace. I’ll be writing daily, but maybe not 1667 words a day. I’ll be living this writer’s life and feeding off all that novel-writing energy in the air, but I’ll also be living November.

I’ve missed November. It’s good to see it again.

Writing Prompt: Don't Forget the Turtle

I attended Tacticon down in Denver this weekend (so much laughter and joy... I missed you all!) and picked up a set of Rory's Story Cubes in the dealer room. A simple storytelling game and a writer's aid all in one--how could I resist? Today's prompt is a visual one.

Prompt: Work all five items below into a story or scene. Make at least once of them important or symbolic to the story as a whole.

Spoil A Reader Sunday

Bookshelf Industrial Pipe (M... stellableudesi... $50.00	Adjustable Velcro Bandolier ... cleverhands $25.95
Mr. Darcy Proposal organic t... Brookish $22.00	fight evil read books square... BookFiend $6.00
Hand Forged Copper Bookmark ... FarOutCreation... $13.00	I Didn't Expect - Print copperinc $10.00
Small Handbound Leather Jour... JustaBrenda $18.00	Large Academic Weekly/Monthl... PocketSquares $20.00
The Ghost's Library Num ... MoonIsSingingP... $20.00	Library Cart Earrings Librar... ALikelyStory $19.95
Custom Personalized Eco Frie... savethedate $27.95	Darkended Library - 7 book n... TheBlackSpotBo... $320.00
Nancy Drew Note Card Gift Se... newnanc $10.50	Jorge Borges Library Quote F... rawartletterpr... $18.00
Zombie Emily Dickinson Alter... fairygold $4.00	OOAK restored altered childr... Raidersofthelo... $550.00

Treasury tool by Red Row Studio.

WIP Wednesday: Immith Inches

"I had this character who..."

If you're a gamer or you spend any time with gamers or if you've even ever set foot in a game store, you've probably heard those words. (The same could probably be said of writers, for that matter. All the people I identify with have active inner lives.)

I once had a character who was a fearsome and powerful witch from the far-off land of Rasheman. Her name was Immith. She wore a mask and carried a whip and a magical staff. I loved being Immith. She was awesome.

For the past year and a half, I've been working on a series of art pieces using the character sheet I originally created for Immith more than a decade ago. I wrote about the first such piece in this entry.

Today, I'm making "Immith inches."






Yes, that's my workspace. Yes, it's usually that messy. The finished product will look quite a bit different from what you see here and I can't wait to share it, but in the mean time, you can see some of the other pieces in my gamer series over at Palimpsestic.

Writing Prompt: G is for Go and Great and Gargantuan and...

I just bought two new Moleskines. It's time to fill them up.

Prompt: Get a pen and some paper and set a timer for five minutes. Start writing every word you can think of that starts with the letter G. Don't stop until the timer goes off. Yes. Five minutes is longer than you think.

Now, reset the timer for 10 minutes. Pick one of your G-words as a title. Start writing, working as many of the words you just listed in as possible. See where it takes you. If you're on a roll when time's up, keep going. If not, pat yourself on the back and consider this a good warmup for your verbal brain.

Tomorrow, do it again with another letter.