Writing: A Month of Imagination!
50,000 words in a month. 1650 words a day. How hard can that be?
Short answer – very hard! But, this month wasn’t about achieving this specific goal, it was about putting pen to paper and letting my imagination come out and play. You’ve got to start somewhere!
Over the month of November, I decided to join the NaNoWriMo challenge. This stands for National Novel Writing Month. There are thousands of people that take on this challenge to write a 50,000 word novel in November. Leading up to this month, I was so excited to take an idea in my head and bring it to life.
It started off great! I’d set aside time, the juices were flowing. I made sure to check my judgement before each writing session. I would constantly remind myself that once this month was over, I could go back and edit as much as I wanted. What I found out though was that writing 1650 words a day took a couple of hours (well at least for me). As the month progressed and life picked up, I found that setting aside this time got harder and harder.
Suffice it to say, I got nowhere near 50,000 words and that’s ok! This year is all about fun and trying new things, not about being hard on myself. A lesson in and of itself for my perfectionism side!
So what did I get out of this month?
Well first off, a huge appreciation for authors! I totally get why it can take years to write a book now. Beyond just finding the time to sit down and write, writers block is a real and frustrating thing!
How did my character get into this situation? Where am I taking this? How am I going to get them out? Didn’t I just create 15 loop holes? Maybe I should just start over. Damn it, no – I’ll just watch some Netflix, that might help!
1 week later and I was still stuck on the same part. Every time I got myself into this mindset, I had to remember not to be hard on myself, that this is just a fun activity and the FIRST time I had ever attempted this. I’d take a deep breath, remove my own judgements and just keep putting pen to paper. This always worked to get me back on track.
The other thing major thing I learned was how fun and exciting writing can be. I don’t know about you, but when I think of writing, I get flash backs to stressing out over the 15 page college essay I needed to turn in! When you have complete creative autonomy over what you are writing though, it’s absolutely addictive. It’s like watching a movie in my own mind. As I’d write about the characters and the plots, I would have images in my mind racing along with my words. When I was really in my groove, minutes would just fly by without me noticing. I’d get to a break in my writing and snap back to reality to realize I had just been smiling the whole time.
There is something so peaceful about engulfing yourself completely in the fantasy you have created in your mind. It’s freeing and almost meditative. It’s hard to feel stressed out when you are day dreaming about magic, love, and triumph.
I may not have my book ready for anyone to read tomorrow or even in 10 years, but I will definitely continue to feed this creative outlet by contributing to this wild story I have created in my head. I’m just as curious to see how it will end!
My challenge to you, take an afternoon and just write. Write about whatever excites you. Don’t worry about if it makes sense or if the layout is right. Just let your mind share it’s fantasy world with you and let yourself get engulfed in it.
