It's finally November 1st. Last night I met up with a local
group of writers who will join me in writing 50,000 words in the form of a
novel. We do this during the month of November. This is National Novel Writing
Month (www.nanowrimo.org) and we are just a few of the hundreds of thousands of
participants worldwide. At the end of the month, we either make our word goal
or we don't. It's all on the honor system, and I believe most of the writers
involve take that very seriously. After all, we don't actually win anything,
unless you count a nice badge to put on your website, and bragging rights. Or
if you don't count the fact that just writing toward that goal makes you feel
as if you accomplished great things, because you did.
Anyway, some of the group arrived at the restaurant around
8:00pm yesterday evening. I got there about an hour later. The last arrival showed
up around 10:00pm. We couldn't start writing until November 1st, so had to keep
ourselves occupied until 12:01am.We ate, we drank, we talked about our novels,
our challenges, we joked around and laughed. A few people left before midnight.
By 11:30pm there were seven of us. We started pulling out laptops and netbooks.
As the minutes ticked by, there were several moments of
silence. There was a bit of electricity in the air, excitement and impatience
building. Some of us slipped away to the restroom. Everyone had laptops fired
up and fingers at the ready.
Finally, midnight, and it was time to type. Our group
finally quieted down, and we all hit the keyboards. This was my first write-in,
and to join in at midnight was amazing. I had no idea where to start, but I
just typed. After about an hour, I decided I better get home and catch some
sleep, and when I checked I had 1100 words posted. Amazing, since I started
with a blank page and an almost blank mind.
I had a wonderful night of camaraderie with my fellow
Treasure Valley NaNo writers. Even though we are loosely organized, we all
agreed that regular writing meetings would be helpful. It sure kickstarted my
novel!
This is probably not my most interesting blog, and most
likely not even that well-written or organized. My mind is not on the blog
right now, it's on the novel that will be unfolding before my eyes. I sure wish
I could use this blog to boost my novel's word count but since I'm not writing
about a writer writing NaNo, it just won't work.
Happy Writing Everyone!
