I love listening to LoFi when I work. The one I am listening to now is called Busy Times, Quiet Places. That inspired me to write this because it is a perfect title for how November has been playing out for me. November is busy for most, the beginning of the holiday season, maybe it’s your travel season. It is a time of reflection and gratitude and for me, it is crunch time for Novel Writing.
November 2020 was the first exposure I had to the writing challenge NaNoWriMo, short for National Novel Writing Month. The goal is to hit 50,000 words of writing in November. Two years ago I used this as a way to get excited about writing again. To give me a goal to complete and to find a way to put my stories into a complete package. I did not achieve the 50,000-word goal nor would I complete it the next November. What it did do was set me on a path to finding my style of writing.
I have found my process of writing is more like a stream of consciousness. There is no plan, yet an empty page does not turn me away. I get excited about what could be the thing to spur me forward. I really love writing prompts and the ideas they give me for a starting place, that is normally all I need to get going.
In the time between my first NaNoWriMo and I wrote a few short stories. The best ones worked at that pace, find a writing prompt, see what happens, find a way to tie it up with a bow, and be done with it. One of those is on the front page of my website. It’s clunky and in need of editing but that is ok. It’s one of my firsts that I felt comfortable enough to share so I do. I don’t mind watching the progress because if I know anything from the last two years, it’s that I have made progress. I also have learned more about my process as far as the day-to-day task of writing.
I enjoy getting up early in the morning. Treating it like any other job is a task to be completed. I like that NaNoWriMo gives writing goals that are in word count. It’s an easily measured metric, that feels good to hit. I use Scrivener to do all my writing including my blogging. It’s a paid program but I can shut off my wifi and still use my computer to get my writing done. I also have to leave the house, treating it like a job, I go to a co-working space and sit down to get my word count in. The environment is perfect for me. I sit in a comfortable chair and have my coffee and get to work seeing what my characters were going to do and where they will go!
So November, it’s full of busy times, yet I give myself the biggest project of the year. So it’s all about finding quiet spaces. Space to work and be creative. So I am encouraged to keep going, even though I am a bit behind. Even though I can’t skip a day anymore. Even though it seems like these 50,000 words will be just a huge outline of what is actually to come. I have moved past the noise and finally feel great calling myself a writer.
Comments