You ever get the urge to just jump into something? Maybe you’ve seen it before, maybe recurrently, and thought “ah if only I had more time…” or you know literally nothing about it and that’s precisely what makes it so appealing.
Well, I decided to jump into NaNoWriMo, aka National Novel Writing Month, having never participated before but having read the general rules in years past and thinking it would be a cool thing to do someday.
Nothing like the present, eh? In order to “win” NaNoWriMo, the goal is to create something that is ~50,000~ words. The average college paper, probably 5 – 10 pages, is in the neighborhood of 2,500 to 5,000 words. So, after those first 10ish pages, just 45,000 words to go! While I know many a college or high school student would question why anyone on this green earth would voluntarily do such a thing to themselves… if you are reader of any sort, how do you think this stuff happens?
Just like an album, movie, influential social media presence, or athlete, you put the time in. NaNoWriMo is for the people who always wondered “what if…” they could be an author, if they could tell a real story or just let their mind wander freely down whatever rabbit hole it found next. What might happen? And there are so many others there with you; you get to see other’s dreams and ideas come to life, meet aspiring authors of all walks in ~*rEal LiFe*~ at local meetups if you so choose, and give and receive encouragement. And if at the end you don’t have 50,000 words?
It’s fine. Maybe you found out you actually despise writing. Good learning experience! Maybe you end up writing The Night Circus (I read this years ago, LOVED IT, and had no idea it was a NaNoWriMo product until two days ago) or Water For Elephants (Sara Gruen also has some other awesome books) or one of these other books – three cheers for you! Maybe you met the next bestselling author and helped them with their book and are now besties. SO COOL.
At least, to me. Personally, I’m not expecting to “win” this year – goal is between 20 and 30 thousand words over here. I’m not even trying to write a fiction book – anyone who knows me knows I can talk a lot, and equally, write a lot, so this is for some personal growth and healing. Regardless of who you are, everyone’s got something to “heal” from; we’ve all got baggage, insecurities and idiosyncrasies. I just want to see what happens when I start weaving together the various lessons, events, and people I've encountered and that have been meaningful for me. Of course, it’s through my perspective, so #bias, and it may not be your cup of tea, but that doesn’t make it any less real. Maybe I run out of stuff to say by page 20 (haha unlikely), or I keep writing and decide to make it completely different. I like the lack of rules for once.
There’s this thought that nobody wants to read other people’s autobiographies, which, yea, that can be totally true. There are some really boring, dragging, un-relatable biographies. My thought is that this is usually because someone else wrote it, or, the author didn’t really care to be vulnerable. Something I’ve been surprised to learn is that, given enough time, I’ve not met a single person whose story isn’t enthrallingly interesting, both familiar and unique.
We don’t get to hear all the stories though, nor should we, so when you stumble across someone who honest-to-goodness wants to learn yours, or share their own with you, pay attention. Maybe they’ll say something that gets you to finally jump into your “thing” that you keep putting off.
