So this year I had resolved not to do NaNoWriMo. I have not failed to do NaNo in 8 years, so the thought of not doing it wasn't awesome, but at the same time I had to recognize the practicality of it. I set aside everything I was doing to work on another project that eventually fell through due to my own lack of paranoia. But that was two weeks of my life, working on nothing but that. I had a novel I was trying to help a friend edit, and am in the middle of a manuscript. I was determined to finish the existing manuscript before starting anything new. I don't like moving on to something new before I finish the old thing, and I have a bad habit of never finishing anything at all.
So I was determined to be responsible and not do NaNoWriMo. Then I made the tactical error of going on to the website. I lurked around the forums, updated my profile, read some NaNoMail, looked through the store... and I was hooked. Suddenly the idea of not doing NaNoWriMo seemed very very depressing. Add in that I've had ideas for new stories just churning like mad through my head and the idea of not doing NaNo becomes a little nuts. Add to all that that I have the first four days of November off and will in fact be taking a 3 hour train ride south on the first, and the idea of not doing NaNoWriMo seems downright criminal. I am in a perfect position to get a great start. How can I pass that up? Even with the unfinished manuscript I find myself leaning towards participating.
I have yet to fully articulate to anyone what the draw is for me to NaNoWriMo. There's something about autumn that makes me want to write anyway and that's when a lot of ideas come to me. So it's definitely timed correctly. Maybe it's just the desire to be part of something bigger, to be one of millions all over the world driving toward this one goal. Maybe it's that everyone is so nice and friendly and like-minded. Maybe it's the feeling of accomplishment I get at the end. Maybe (probably) it's all of the above.
Either way, I think I shall be starting a story on that fine train ride I am so looking forward to taking. Now to decide on an idea and start an outline...
Thursday, October 25, 2012
Thursday, February 23, 2012
... In Which I shall introduce myself, and provide backstory for which you did not ask.
Well, here I am with yet another blog. I hadn't really planned on it being this way, but in the words of Jayne, "What you plan and what takes places ain't ever exactly been similar."
I'm starting this blog as something a bit more writerly in focus. I have a couple other blogs, one strictly personal ramblings, and one in which I bash bad e-books with a couple of partners in crime but since I'm trying to work on that whole "career in writing" thing, I wanted something with perhaps less cussing and more about what I'm doing as a writer. I have been told I need "web-presence" and I cannot deny the logic.
The promised backstory is this... when I was in the fourth grade I wrote a story for a big creative writing project. It was a fantasy story, and while I remember precious few details of that fateful tale, I do recall that there was at one point an aerial battle between a pegasus and a griffin. During this epic conflict the pegasus kicked the griffin clean out of the air. My teacher at the time, one Mr. Bob Kepler, pulled me aside and said the story was so good that he really felt that if I didn't pursue a career in writing (something I clearly loved doing) that I would be doing to my life what the pegasus did to the griffin: kicking it to the ground. I loved him for saying that, and will always be grateful to him for it.
Unfortunately, I feel as though I've let him down a bit. While never really meaning to do so, I have in fact kicked that dream of being a writer to the curb. I have never not had some writing project to work on, but never really made a serious attempt at being successful.
Well that is behind me now. I am making a serious attempt.
Wherever you are, Mr. Kepler, be proud. I'm rescuing my griffin.
I'm starting this blog as something a bit more writerly in focus. I have a couple other blogs, one strictly personal ramblings, and one in which I bash bad e-books with a couple of partners in crime but since I'm trying to work on that whole "career in writing" thing, I wanted something with perhaps less cussing and more about what I'm doing as a writer. I have been told I need "web-presence" and I cannot deny the logic.
The promised backstory is this... when I was in the fourth grade I wrote a story for a big creative writing project. It was a fantasy story, and while I remember precious few details of that fateful tale, I do recall that there was at one point an aerial battle between a pegasus and a griffin. During this epic conflict the pegasus kicked the griffin clean out of the air. My teacher at the time, one Mr. Bob Kepler, pulled me aside and said the story was so good that he really felt that if I didn't pursue a career in writing (something I clearly loved doing) that I would be doing to my life what the pegasus did to the griffin: kicking it to the ground. I loved him for saying that, and will always be grateful to him for it.
Unfortunately, I feel as though I've let him down a bit. While never really meaning to do so, I have in fact kicked that dream of being a writer to the curb. I have never not had some writing project to work on, but never really made a serious attempt at being successful.
Well that is behind me now. I am making a serious attempt.
Wherever you are, Mr. Kepler, be proud. I'm rescuing my griffin.
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