Tuesday, October 26, 2010

National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo)

yup, that's right, it's almost November again and time for another month of attempting to write a novel or some semblance therein. every year i aim for 50k words so i can "win" the event. so far i've managed to only win once, in 2008. and that's only because i did a massive word dump, lol.

this year my intention was to continue with a wee project i started early last year, a travel journal for a fake trip to Ireland. the concept for that started back in the spring of 2009 when i ran across International Fake Journal Month (IFJM) over on Roz Stendahl's blog. but i happened across it too late in the month (April) to fully participate. i decided then that i would flesh out the story in November for NaNo, stocking up on a plethora of Irish tour guides and miscellaneous travel books. and i did make a feeble attempt at writing the travel journal, mapping out the itinerary, making notes of places to see and things to do. i did dump a lot of words into the book but the project felt overwhelming, and i didn't get very far with it.

i did think, however, that i had enough to work with to participate in the 2010 IFJM project. well, April 2010 came and went without any activity related to Ireland. le sigh.

ramping up for this year's NaNo, i thought for sure i'd write my Irish travel journal. and that's been my intention for weeks. but creeping into the back of my mind was the idea of capturing family memories. i had started writing family stories for my OASIS writing class a few years ago, and continued in the same vein when i took an online memoir writing class through Writer's Digest. and what has really brought it to the forefront is the flurry of family emails in the last week surrounding the birth of my first great-nephew, Jack.

i finally realized late in the day yesterday that the urge to write family stories is too strong to ignore. trying to focus on the Irish project felt forced, while the memoir kept poking through my awareness, demanding my attention. and because the memoir feels more natural, i think it will help keep my focus and my enthusiasm for the month of writing. i may even reach 50k again!!

there will be many more posts on this subject, so it's fair to say "to be continued."