Novel November

’Tis the end of October

Which means tomorrow is the first of November

Otherwise known as National Novel Writing Month

I have participated 15 years now - writing over 50,000 words each year.  Two of those projects have since been published - although they are not novels, but rather are non-fiction books.  The other 13 drafts lie hidden away and may or may not ever again see the light of day.

I’ve mentioned elsewhere that the official NaNoWriMo is no more but that many of us still plan to write. I keep discovering new resources designed to encourage us during this project.

Allow me to recommend one that looks pretty cool - called First Draft November. Here’s the invitation and welcome:

NaNoWriMo is canceled.

Your novel isn't. 

Thirty days, one messy draft.

Join us for a month-long

novel writing challenge

helping you hit 50,000 words. 

...

Happy Writing, friends!

If all else fails, take a walk!

 

I was crabby

Grumpy

Nagging my dear man

Crying

Asking his forgiveness - which he kindly gives.

Sadness

Fear 

Meanness 

So many people hurting

Scared

Downright terrified

So much bad news

Gotta’ look for the good things

Thank goodness, there are also many of them

Good times with wonderful people

Wisdom

Insight

Perspective

Learning from each other

I want to be kind and forgiving

Patient and understanding

I want to forgive others

I want to forgive myself

I want to shed my grumpiness

Maybe go for a walk

So I did.

It worked!

I wonder

When I was working as a missions mobilizer, I came across this story entitled “Sing a little louder” as told by an old weeping Christian man.  

A railroad track ran behind our small church, and each Sunday morning we would hear the whistle from the distance and then the clacking of the wheels moving over the track.  We became disturbed when one Sunday we noticed cries coming from the train as it passed by. We grimly realized that the train was carrying Jews.  They were like cattle in those cars!

Week after week that train whistle would blow. We would dread to hear the sound of those old wheels because we knew that the Jews would begin to cry to us as they passed our church. It was so terribly disturbing!  We could do nothing to help these poor miserable people, yet their screams tormented us. We knew exactly at what time that whistle would blow, and we decided the only way to keep from being so disturbed by the cries was to start singing our hymns.  By the time the train came rumbling past the church yard, we were singing at the top of our voices.  If some of the screams reached our ears, we'd just sing a little louder until we could hear them no more. Years passed and no one talks about it much anymore, but I still hear that train whistle in my sleep.  I can still hear them crying out for help.  God forgive all of us who called ourselves Christians, yet did nothing to intervene.

I have been haunted by that story.

I wondered how you could live with that kind of memory but what could they have done?

I also wondered how the German people had allowed such a person to gain so much power.   I could not imagine how that could happen.

But now… 

Here we are dealing with things I never could have imagined.

At first the money to feed starving people through USAID was shut down.  A friend of ours who has been directing a refugee camp in Haiti reached out to her church friends back here in Michigan and described that millions of people would die without that food.  Most of the comments were tender - except one stating that we shouldn’t give money because it just complicates the poverty situation.  I was stunned.  Well, yes, poverty is obviously a complicated thing - but these people had not caused it.  AND they were starving.  In. That. Moment.

It wasn’t long until the ghoulish spectre of mobs of masked men began terrorizing our cities, dragging women from their cars, invading apartment buildings, breaking down doors, forcing people from their homes… and a whole lot more…

Some of our friends and neighbors deal with extreme fear - as do the International students we work with - here legally but targeted because of their skin color or their accent.

It makes me shudder.

It is indeed haunting.

Frightening.

What are we do to?

This girl went to Sunday School and church for 60 years and learned that we must submit to the authority placed over us.

But this girl was also taught to obey God rather than man.

Jesus spoke regularly about welcoming the stranger and helping the poor.

So what am I to do?

What CAN I do?

I wonder.

I cannot stand by and do nothing.

I can speak in protest, but my voice feels so small.

Maybe I can stand beside people who are afraid.

I can listen. 

But is it enough?

I wonder.

Sitting area finally ready for sitting

We have always called it our “sitting area” although some people remember the huge stacks of bins and boxes, etc. that were piled there on moving day.  

As the weeks turned into months a few of you may remember hearing me exclaim about how I was getting it down to like only three rows deep under those windows. 

And then how excited I was as Row Two started to disappear.

...

Well... during GoodStock at The Good Beans Cafe, my man checked out the rummage sale in the Anteroom and found a pair of cool chairs for our sitting area.  

So… it was time to tackle Row One for real. I am happy to report that I have now pared it down enough that we can actually sit there in our sitting area.  

Sitting room, library, lounge... whatever.

I call it progress!

It wasn’t until sometime later that we discovered

the lovely chairs once belonged to the amazing Sybyl Atwood. 

What to do about NaNo…

I have done NaNoWriMo for the last fifteen years.  In other words, every November since 2010 I have participated in National Novel Writing Month, joining thousands of writers around the world.  That first year I had no clue what I was doing, but I quickly learned that I must write 50,000 words during the month of November in order to win my NaNo certificate.  

I came up with some idea that I thought I might want to write about.  I decided my first priority would be to make the word count - whether I ended up with anything “good” or not.  Just do that word count. That decision turned out to be important even though it meant that I ended up with some strange lines full of silly admissions like “I don’t know what to write” repeated throughout some of the pages.  And I did it!  I made it to the word count goal that year.  And the next… Soon it was 5 years and then 10.  

As summer turns to fall, I begin wondering “What will I do for NaNo this year?  What shall I write about?"  I find myself putting it on my schedule to start preparing in September - or at least certainly October - brainstorming and experimenting and trying out ideas for that year’s NaNo challenge.  

In those early years, I often kept going into December.  Kept writing as long as I could think of things to write.  Most of those projects are tucked away in some hibernation chamber… er, um… I mean file folders somewhere.  But, on two specific projects, I worked all through the winter - and even ended up publishing them!

Gradually, this annual rhythm of NaNoWriMo helped form my writing focus. 

Gear up in the fall.

Write like crazy in November.

Try to capture whatever else is still in my head in December.

Then figure out what to do with it during the winter.

Sure enough I had built a sort of annual writing rhythm.

… 

However, something happened this year.

The ground has shifted in the NaNo-verse.

The news is out; NaNoWriMo is no more.

No more fun and encouraging exercises from the NaNo staff.

No more NaNo merch.

No more certificates for our 50k words!

No more gearing up in September and October to write in November.

So now what do we do?

Never fear; turns out NaNoWrimers are a tenacious bunch.

Who says we can’t do NaNo this year?

I mean... I can still write anyway?

Even if NaNoWriMo, the official organization, is no more?

I can still brainstorm in September, and start experimenting in October?

That I can still gear up to write 50,000 words during November?

I guess that is all true.

For any of us.

After all, WE are the ones that pounded out those words every year.

We are the ones who set the goals and took the steps.

We show up to reach our daily goals… week after week.

We can still do them.

…

Yes, I am sad that there is no more NaNoWriMo.

It was an amazing thing and made a huge difference in my life.

I wish it was still around.

But I can still write.

I can take advantage of the things I learned from NaNo.

The things I tried.

The things that worked AND the ones that didn’t.

I am grateful for NaNoWriMo, for the idea.

I am grateful that Chris Baty’s vision came to life in 1999.

I’m grateful that my pastor friend, Ron, told me about it in 2010.

I’m grateful for my NaNo buddies in that very first year… 

…and most recently at the Marian E. Wright Writing Center

I’m glad for the brainstorming we are doing and the good ideas people suggest.

Sure enough, it's time!

Time to figure out what I’m writing for NaNo this year.

Let’s do this thing!