Mass AWOL With NANOWRIMO

Last night I came home and wandered onto my blog to check traffic and was shocked to see it had dropped to nearly nothing.  Had I forgotten to post, I wondered, or was I being boycotted? 

I started surfing thru all my usual places where I hang out with my writer friends, and the chatrooms were all as dead as my blog.  Did some sort of literary rapture happen, and now all my literary pals are gone to the great library in the sky?  …and why was I still here… 🙁

Then I got a blog update from Tania Walsh’s blog where she mentioned that she was participating in NANOWRIMO.  The word looked suspiciously familiar, and I started scrolling thru my inbox looking for where I’d seen it before.

NANOWRIMO was suddenly everywhere… on Page Buoy I was invited to a group doing it, my favorite virtual hangout, Book Island, has a whole area dedicated to it and I’ve seen mention of it in half a dozen blog posts over the past week.  But what is it?

NANOWRIMO stands for National Novel Writing Month, and “is run by a tiny but mighty nonprofit called the Office of Letters and Light.”  My interest was piqued, “Office of Letters and Light” sounds Harry Potterish and magical.  I want to go to Hogwarts, send me an owl!

NANOWRIMO started November 1st, just as I was discovering it, but I am not deterred.  The goal appears to be to write a novel in a month.  Always up for a challenge, I signed up.  Not only am I starting a day late tho, I need a novel plot.  No worries, I just happen to have an easy one.

I’ve had several close friends (and my husband) pushing for me to write about my homeless experiences for a while, but I already have two writing projects sitting on my desk so I’ve been holding off.  One project requires a lot of research and interviews, and one I just don’t want to rush so I searched my mind for a third project (like I need more projects….).  I remembered their suggestions, and have decided to go with it.  How easy is that (I say now), the plot is already done!

So I am going to fall in with this odd NANOWRIMO and dedicate myself for the next month to “Thirty days and thirty nights of literary abandon”.  It sounds like an adventure to record my misadventures, one I’ve been meaning to do for while but have just been waiting for the write moment.  Pun intended ;p

When I was 16 years old I was told I couldn’t be a writer yet because I hadn’t had any life experiences.  A few days later I ran away from home to find something to write about.  Along the way I slept in doorways, lived in a house of skinheads, ran for my life a few times, almost sold my soul to Satan, redeemed my soul at a half dozen churches and met the most fascinating people on all sides of the foodline… and then there’s the crazy stuff.  These are the tales I’ll finally try to record this month.

November is a good month to finally write all this.  It’s my favorite month, the turning of the seasons when everything is peppered with a sense of nostalgia at the summer we just lost.  The heady celebration of Halloween is just over, and Christmas is just starting to flavor our mood with holiday magic.  November is a month of quiet reflection on what we have, where we’ve been and where we are going.  I’m looking forward to the journey.

13 thoughts on “Mass AWOL With NANOWRIMO”

  1. Don’t forget you have an appt with an editor at the end of the month too! LOL

    Good luck with NaNo!! Can’t wait to see what you get out of it!

  2. I’ve heard about NANOWRIMO before, but this might be the year to do it. Since I’m finally about done with my website, I can get back to my novel. This is a great chance to finish it this month.

    I have to agree with you–November is a great month; I was born in it for one thing!

  3. Pingback: I Got a Job… Blogging In Person ;p | :Dandilyon Fluff

  4. Pingback: Sneak Peek at My Nano Novel | :Dandilyon Fluff

  5. Pingback: It’s a Write-a-thon! Fundraising for a Good Cause | :Dandilyon Fluff

  6. Pingback: Blog Award ;D | :Dandilyon Fluff

  7. Pingback: My NaNo-Geddon Moment | :Dandilyon Fluff

Leave a Reply to Anne Sanders Cancel Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Scroll to Top