Soon, very very soon it
will be my favourite month again. It wasn't anything spectacular until the year
2011, but since then I can't help but be excited for it. I even remember that
the year before November was especially rough as I had to go through a lot of
personal struggles (including a broken heart, hard times at school and health
issues). Luckily those are now all over and as I said, November turned out to
be my favourite month despite the cold weather. I have already told you pieces
of it, but today I hope you get the whole picture of the adventure called
NaNoWriMo.
NaNoWriMo stands for
national novel writing month, but in fact it should be called
"international" by now, as there are people all over the world
participating in it. When I first heard of it during summer 2011, I had no idea
about the journey that it would take me on. I thought the idea was plain crazy,
but I've never been very opposed to such things. I decided to make an account
immediately. The goal of NaNo is to get people to write. We all know that first
drafts are very rough; the plot holes might be as deep as Marianas Trench and
the character are as flat as a lake on a day without wind. Whilst we are aware
of that, we also know that without producing anything you cannot improve. If
you do not write, how are you supposed to get the stories out of your head?
That's quite hard. So during the thirty days of November a participant is
obligated to write 50,000 words, which are approximately 1666 words a
day.
You can't win anything,
except for the words you write and the knowledge that you did it. To be fair
that is pretty amazing and it feels brilliant. On the other hand it is hard
work. It means scheduling, maybe lack of sleep and less time with your friends.
Writing has to be on your list of priorities along with school and those
things. I usually cut down on facebook and the general not writing related
internet then. During my first year I was a senior, participated in a musical
and as I said I wrote a novel of 85,000. It was intense but so so good. I may
have already told you, but before this experience I considered myself neither
creative nor a writer. Nowadays those things are very important features to me
so yeah, I'm glad I figured that out.
Looking back there was a
huge chance of me just not attempting it the first year, even after signing up,
but the forums kept my spirit up. In October I joined the purple elephants, a
group initially formed to help out one guy with his girl problems that brought
together a bunch of cool people from different places. I think they are in
their fourth year by now and they are some of the rare threads that stay active
all year round. Basically all of them are very dear to me and were there for me
in times where I couldn't talk with anyone in real life and they are open
minded and supportive and I really really love them. Without them the noveling
experience would be half as enjoyable and as I said, they keep you motivated
with their excitement.
Now I want to tell you more
about the two stories I wrote and the one I'll be writing this year. NaNo '11
was a very important for me. I wrote the story called "truth is stranger
than fiction" which basically was a novel consisting of stories that
happened to me and my friends, in addition of a lot of fiction. Through this I
was able to get past some things that were bothering me for years and I learned
just how good of a therapy writing is. To this day it's the only story that
found an end, even though I have not managed to do any editing yet. I'm not
sure if I ever could do something with it because it's so personal.
Last year I did something entirely
different. Based on a nightmare I once had I created a dystopian world in which
there was a thing called "the ritual" in which kids become adults.
That story was called "Toward the light - Dem Licht entgegen" The
whole thing was supposed to be very psychological, the world building killed me
though and that's the reason why I stopped right after November. I'm still very
fond of the novel but right now it's just to time and energy consuming.
This year I'm back to my
used field, I want to write another young adult /teen’s novel. The basic idea
is stolen from a guy I know. He wants to do a volunteer year and before he
leaves he wants to sell his phone and delete his facebook account. That
somewhat made me think. I'm pretty often on facebook and even the idea of not
having a phone feels pretty uncomfortable for me. All in all that plan
inspired and fascinated me a lot and I decided to use it, even though I felt
very awkward at first. I always do when I use things that happen around me for
a story, but I work best when I have at least a rough idea of what I'm talking
about. I have to stress the fact that except for the very basic idea, the rest
is pure fiction. I always fear that people might get me wrong when I write romantically
stuff that is roughly based on someone I know. I am a writer and creativity
knows no boundaries.
Of course the general idea
is not that spectacular, so I had to add a pinch of drama, some romance and
several unexpected happenings. I also wanted to challenge my writing skills
somehow, so I gave the story a twist. I have two main character. There is Elis,
the guy who leaves for South America, and there is Chloë, a girl who is still
in school. They used to be friends but drifted apart somehow. Now she writes
him a letter because she is angry about what he did. She does not expect him to
answer, but he does. The whole story is supposed to be narrated through those
letters. Nothing else, no more descriptions, just a whole bunch of letters.
It will be quite hard, as
there are only that much you can include into a letter about for example how
they look like and about the very obvious things that they've known for ages, but
I will try my best to figure out a way. I'm so looking forward to where this
story may lead me.
So I'm sorry if I bored you
to death, but bare with me during this time. Or just leave if you don't care :P
Cheerio.
P.S. This post is scheduled
as I'm in Germany right now, just thought I'd tell you.
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