We're All Winners with NaNoWriMo

NaNoWriMo is intimidating. (Duh?) I thought about it last year, and chickened out. This year, I paid the NaNoWriMo website a little more attention after reading Lucy John's November is National Writing Month and a poem that struck just the right cord.

As I read, my self-doubt multiplied. While you are not allowed to begin writing your novel until 12:01 am on November 1^st, you are allowed to prepare. They recommended kicking around titles, examining possible plots and plot twists, and developing backgrounds on characters and settings. Yikes.

This is not how I write, not how I've ever written. It is definitely not how I handle fiction. For me, fiction and poetry are either there or they aren't. They just come out. I'm one of those people who almost doesn't feel that I am the one writing. These stories, these concepts, they come from somewhere much deeper than my conscious brain.

I worried that I would be woefully unprepared. How would I be set to write 1,667 words a day (thank you, Lucy John, for letting me know that's my goal) when I hadn't mapped anything out? Yet how could I map out a story and just hope I could follow along?

I have tried in the past to force myself to write on a certain topic or other. It has never worked. I have no illusions whatsoever about being able to force out 50,000 words in one month around some characters and plots that I might invent in the next few weeks. I know, bad attitude won't help, but I like to see it as being realistic.

So, I took a little attitude adjustment. Who cares? Does it really matter if I don't finish the whole 50,000 words? It can't.

That's right, I said it, I don't care.

Strange, right? I don't want to start something that will have me beating myself up if I don't finish. So I've decided to approach from another angle.

Maybe I do have a story in me. Maybe there is a novel that wants to come out. The imagery in a poem by Ciara S. (Abandonnd House) certainly got something, novel or less, poking around trying to find its way out. I'm joining NaNoWriMo as a challenge to myself, as encouragement to let out whatever might be lurking in the depths of my mind.

What have I got to lose? Since I've already decided that I don't care if I finish, there's no way for me to lose. Either there's a novel in there, or there isn't. If there isn't, I'll know that, and the more I know about me, the better. If there is but I just can't finish it in 30 days, well, then, I've got the whole rest of my life to finish letting it out. And if I do finish? Well, I'll decide that if it happens.

**For those readers who would like more info on NaNoWriMo, I would highly recommend these 3 AC articles. Michelle (Michy) Devon's How to Prepare for NaNoWriMo, gives a great over view. Simran provides a really interesting history of NaNoWriMo statistics from creation through 2005 in It's NaNoWriMo Time Again!. Abigail Beal's Tips for Winning NaNoWriMo has some fabulous suggestions for participants.