NANOWRIMO

There hasn't been much in the letterboxing world for me to blog about, and I've been lazy anyway, so I'm interrupting this letterboxing theme to participate in NANOWRIMO, which I think many letterboxers would cheer to anyway.

What is NANOWRIMO? Why, National Novel Writing Month of course. Every year since about 2000 from November 1-30 writers across the globe have put their pen to the paper or their fingers to the keyboard and written like mad with a goal of creating a 50,000 word novel in 30 days. I tried it myself for the first time last year and realized just how hard it was. I had to fight against laziness, procrastination, sleepy eyes, and my own OCD tendencies to push out those 50,000 words. I made it, though, barely, and I learned a lot in the process. This year I've decided on a new way to motivate myself. I won't be blogging here about my struggles in writing. Rather, I will be posting every unedited gurgitation of my brain. If you choose to read, you do so at your own risk. You will see a novel born and, hopefully, a child writer finding bliss once again.

www.nanowrimo.org

Displaying unedited words could be embarrassing. One of the ways I made it through last year was to ignore spelling, grammar, and focus on the story, just keep writing. December was my month to clean up the scattered mess I'd made. If I decided I wanted to change something in the story I did it from that point forward and didn't worry about going back to change everything prior. Writing for me is a form of expression I cannot seem to master in body language. Expressions, speaking, even displaying emotion at all has always been a challenge for me. Writing for me is like releasing the floodgates of expression and emotion that get stuck somewhere between my brain and my lips, but seem to flow more freely out my fingertips. This is not to say I regard myself as a great writer. I do my best and I try to get better, but I don't consider that in itself the point. It's not about greatness, but about what writing does for me mentally, emotionally, even spiritually. This year, I would like to share that journey here. So after November 1st, start looking for my first words, and enjoy. :)