NaNoWriMo Oh-Nine
The Girl With The Silver Eyes is my first proper recollection when I think of novels that have inspired me to write.
I’m sure there were others before it, as there have been dozens upon dozens since. That book, however, is the one that first sticks out in my mind. One of my first novel projects was a shameless attempt at imitation - The Girl With Purple Eyes - which thankfully never saw the light of day beyond the first chapter and a cover drawing. I still might have a copy of the book nestled amongst my childhood classics. It may or may not have been shamelessly stolen from my grade five classroom at the end of the year. (Mr. Miller, I’m sorry.)
So, if I have this inspiration, why haven’t I written a novel before?
The same reason why I’m sure many do. Novels are intimidating. Sure, you can write roleplay snippets once a week for your latest game, or perhaps you write serial fan-fiction, but a novel? 50,000 is a lot of words. I am presently clocking in at 19,026 words for my latest excursion into novel-writing, and just that is a huge feat to me. Especially considering I don’t have anyone pushing me forward but myself. Not to say my friends don’t inspire and encourage me, but novel-writing is a very lonely practice.
This is why NaNoWriMo is so necessary. It encourages you to make that 50,000 words, to meet their deadline, all the while encompassing you in a very supportive community of other NaNovelists. You can keep tabs on how everyone else is doing through their user profiles and assure everyone is where they should be with their goals.
This will be my first year attempting NaNoWriMo. I can’t say I’ll win, but I’ll sure as hell try. Information on the novel project I will be attempting (titled “Triptych”) can be found on my NanoWiki project Oh-Nine.
Originally published at The Circus at World's End. You can comment here or there.