It’s official. NaNoWriMo is going to be a wash for another year. I had it all worked out – word goals broken out by weeks and days, time scheduled where I would be alone with nothing but myself, my laptop and a cup of coffee – be it at the local Panera (where other NaNoWriMo participants spend their Sunday mornings), or in my back yard, and the desire to create something. Anything. What was missing?
A story.
Yep. I have no idea what I want to write. I just know that I want to write something. I always have, now that I think about it. Yet the storyline eludes me. I want it to be unique, special, but I can’t think of anything other than the same old story we see in just about every movie and in every book. Love, loss, redemption – they’re all overdone. The only hope we have is to put our own personal twist into it.
I have tried to start with a character. Just one – and make that character come to life in my mind. Give him or her a story all their own by explaining what made them come to be. What events gave them the characteristics they have and why they are where they are. But rather than focus on the one, I tend to get ahead of myself and begin other projects. I don’t have ADD or anything – but I feel like if I don’t switch around, I never will.
I was lucky enough to win a blog contest a while back, and the prize was a copy of The 3 A.M. Epiphany – which is a fantastic collection of writing exercises all put together in one book. I think that I may finally break it out and actually use it. Foreign concept, right? I know!
Once a week, I could pick an exercise and work it into my blog as a special post. Just to see what happens. Maybe, just a possibility, by next year – I could be in a much better position to begin NaNoWriMo and, dare I say it – Finish it???
Until then… One can only hope!
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