I’m writing fiction again. At one time I thought I might not ever return to that endeavor but NaNoWriMo has helped to prod me in that direction once again.
I published my first (and only) novel through Publish America back in 2007. This would be a good time to stop and promote that book, give the title, price, etc. but I will not do that for reasons I will not go into much here; suffice it to say it’s a privacy issue I’m struggling to work through.
I’ve had story ideas floating through my brain of course but nothing that I’m willing to sit down and flesh out on paper, digital paper at that. I had participated in NaNoWriMo a few years back right after my book was published. I still have the manuscript lying around somewhere on a hard drive waiting to be proofread and cleaned up a bit.
For the past couple of months I’ve anticipated this year’s NaNoWriMo. The only problem was that I couldn’t think of a single story idea which interested me. November 1st rolled around and I still didn’t have any ideas. I had about decided to give up the idea and try again next year.
Then I went on Facebook and saw that my niece in Maryland was participating in NaNoWriMo. It was late in the afternoon but I decided to open up a blank Word document to see what would happen.
A scene unfolded in my head. A woman kneels in the dark by her bed trying to reach a metal box that has gotten shoved too far underneath the bed. I give her the name Imogene which I’ve stolen from a previous story idea I had. As I typed, a story began to emerge. Fairly soon I had my first 1,700 words or so that I needed for the first day of writing.
I’m excited about this new novel. I’ve discovered that I can write when I’m not in the happiest of moods. I just needed something to get me started and NaNoWriMo has done the trick.
