I have NaNoWriMo on the brain. I guess I am just psyching myself up for the upcoming start date. I am thrilled to be doing this again, as it helps me get a story out that had seeded itself in my mind. And it’s a great exercise, as well!!
I thought I would like to write a bit about my past, and possible future attempts at Nation Novel Writing Month. So, here it is, for any and all to see. A bit of my ups, and downs while writing 50,000 words. The amount, more or less, in a short novel.
The first year I attempted, which was the only year I completed it, was 2007. The whole year, and a bit of the year before, I had this odd story in my head. It all started around Christmas 2006, as I can trace it back.
That year, I was pretty sick around Christmas time. Christmas Eve, my sleep was plagued, a bit, by what I like to think of as fever dreams. My dreams, then, were odd, and fairly vivid.
These dreams involved a young Japanese girl, who became my heroine named Mizuki, and warring factions of Japanese Yokai (a supernatural being). The two factions were the Tengu and the Kappa.
My dream showed the young girl falling under attack by fearsome Kappa, only to have the Tengu come to her rescue. The dream was basic, but, it laid the ground for a larger story.
Everyday for thirty days, I wrote of Mizuki and her friends and family. Relationships became entwined, and grew apart. Villains and heroes formed, and the story, for the most part, went in it’s own direction. Things really did happen to these characters, that weren’t originally in my plans!
It was actually pretty magical, for the story to take shape on it’s own. To me, NaNoWriMo was a novel idea (no pun intended). It allowed a procrastinating amateur writer to actually get something done. I was thrilled beyond belief when, on November 30th, I had written a bit over the 50,000 word goal!
2008 rolled around, and no story really seemed to plant it’s seed in my subconcious. I knew I had many months to prepare, so I thought long and hard, but nothing really came up.
Sometime that Summer, though, I found myself (repeatedly) listening to Help! by The Beatles. It was a favorite CD of mine to listen to while I did the dishes. I noticed that the songs on the album, if rearranged a bit, created a story.
So, I had my idea. The story didn’t have a real basis. Not like the previous one did. I had an outline which was made of the tracks of the album rearranged to make a story.
When the time came to start writing, he story flowed pretty well. It was a love story (as some of the songs on Help! lent themselves well to that type), and the characters began to take on lives of their own.
However, as the month trudged on, it became harder and harder for me to form a good story. I reached a dead-end. It wasn’t writers block so much, as it was me losing interest in my own creation.
This year, my inspiration came from MANY odd encounters on the chat site Omegle. I actually started writing the story not long after those encounters, but soon forgot about it. I believe that was procrastination or the fact that I knew NaNoWriMo was not long in coming.
Well, when my computer died, and I lost all the files on it, I took it as a sign that I wasn’t meant to write that story until November brought NaNoWriMo to me. A sad part of that whole affair is, though, that I lost the copies of my other attempts.
I always meant to revisit both of those stories, at some point, and do a lot of work on them. However, that is no longer possible, so I am going to have to put my all into writing this new one. Wish me luck!
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