For those of you who don’t know NaNoWirMo is national novel writing month and you sign up online. The idea is that you write 50,000 words during the month of November, and this year I have decided to take part. There are on-line local networks so you can meet up virtually with fellow writers and some areas organise writing events so you can get down to writing with people of a similar frame of mind. It is a challenge to write approximately 1500-2000 words a day, especially, as at the moment I am failing to write even 1000, and perhaps this was the impetus. The first draft on the children’s novel is nearly ready but even this has been slow going, too much prevaricating, time wasting and general distractions. NaNoWriMo then could be just the stimulation needed to kickstart the novel. There are two novels i have had planned for far too long, the sequel to Tumbling Through Life and a new novel with a theme that explores friendship and yet I haven’t managed to sit down and write them yet.
I have explained it away to myself, trying to find a job with a regular income, dealing with the children and various appointments that just have to take priority, but the truth is in reality fear. What if no-one reads it? What is people read it and hate it? Should I use a non de plume just in case? Whilst all these thoughts are going around the writing is stilted and messy and although novels are planned no real work other than research has happened as yet, a few false starts and then the impetus runs out. SO I have decided that one of the novels is going to get written in as much of its entirety as it can this November, strangely for me straight onto the computer and hopefully at the end of the month I will be uploading it to the NaNoWriMo site to get an official word count, editing and publishing for Christmas.
The days of waiting for an editor to pick up the manuscript are over, I am going to take my chances with Amazon Kindle and let the work speak for itself. Fear will no doubt mount up but in the end my ambition has never been to be a bestselling author, just to maybe touch a few people or allow people to lose themselves in my story and characters for a few hours I still haven’t decided whether to add my own name but it’s time to be more confident and allow let others to decide if they want to read it or not! I am hoping that NaNoWriMo will re-establish my daily habit of writing every day for better fluidity and getting rid of those lazy and bad habits that develop, as most teachers of creative writing will say it is best to write every day wherever possible. As I have made this promise to myself, to just write for me without worrying ideas have been flowing, notebooks being scribbled in before the idea that arrives flees just as quickly.
Perhaps I want to take on the challenge as well to show the children how practice makes perfect, or at least a bit better than you were when you started, starting a task and finishing it. They are all working hard at school and this term has had a few surprises. Imp ran in a cross country team and has been going to running club, something I never thought I’d say about any of my children, and Pixie took a little time to adjust as it is the first time she has been alone in a school now her big brother has moved onto Year 3! Now she seems settled but we’ll see what happens after the half term holiday! Hpops meanwhile seems to be as forgetful as ever, we have already had to scour the house and school for glasses, violin and various books that she has managed to forget or lose! Pixie seems to have found something that interests her out of school as she has started to attend a stage school where she is enjoying learning to sing, dance and act, not that she needs much help with the latter as she has always been a drama queen, I just hope we’re not creating a monster!
