Abducted by NaNoWriMo

It is funny how one moment you have no idea where you are going and the next moment it is all so clear and you can’t wait to get started.

That is exactly how I feel right now! Only a few weeks ago I had absolutely no idea what I would be writing about for this years NaNoWriMo project. Then about a week ago, I finally resolved on an idea. Not one I was too proud of or excited about, but it was enough to get me started.

One of the ideas I’ve always tinkered with was to write something in the style of Maeve Binchy. She writes truly amazing novels that link together several different stories and uses them to tell really simple tales of people’s everyday lives and choices they make. Of course I would never assume that I could come close to touching the ability that Binchy has, but it would be fun to try. I shared with my friend Andrea, how one blessing to this style of writing would be that if I ever got stuck or bored with a character I could just switch over.

But then, last night, I started flipping through magazines to put faces to my characters.

And now here I am.

I have my entire novel cast-ed. I know all of my characters names (first and last), I know the way they look, I know their personalities. And after spending my entire day off looking through the forums on the NaNoWriMo site I know what is going to happen to some of them.

I know how the story will start and how it will end. I have so many ideas buzzing in my head I fear that if November does not hurry up and get here my head is going to explode.

It is funny to me because all I wanted this year was to be more prepared then I was last year starting NaNoWriMo, so that I could get off to a solid head start. But as October was quickly passing I was starting to get nervous that November 1st would arrive and I would still be drawing a blank. And now here I am just days away and I can’t wait to get started.

The only problem is that I have no idea what the main arc in the story is going to be. The main climax. The main turning point.

But I have no fear. My characters will lead me there, I am sure of it.

I make no promises that my novel will be anything worth reading by the time I am done. But as long as I give voice to these characters (and as long as none of them break into Andrew Lloyd Weber songs when they are on dates…a method I might have used to pad my story last year) I will consider myself successful.




ONLY 3 MORE DAYS TO GO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!