Soccer Mom in Denial: NaNoWriMo

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Writing The Bee Tree

Some of you have been following a little project I decided to try.

I've been writing a 50,000-word novel in a month - 30 days to be exact. As the above graph shows, I've been writing almost daily and pretty close to finishing. Those two huge red days were when I spent a Saturday for my organization's biannual convention and when I had book group. I think that is a good reason not to write. I was talking about other people's writing.

My kids have finally noticed that I haven't been typing furiously while working on the blog. Lest you think I am getting solitary time to write - I have been writing while helping someone put shoes on her Cinderella, managing second graders' homework and listening with one ear as someone practices piano. In spite of this one little guy is getting excited that I am nearing the end. He seems to think it will be on bookshelves next month.

What I hate to tell him is that I wrote this for me - as both a personal challenge and a purge.

The challenge originates from NaBloPoMo 2007. I posted every day last November and would sometimes stumble on blogs in which the author declared there would be minimal posting since she/he was "doing" NaNoWriMo - National Novel Writing Month. It made me wonder if I could do that.

Then in January I left the kids for a mini-vacation with Amazing Guy. While thrilled to be away with him, the location was less than desirable for me. On the flight over I got to thinking how horrid it would be to die, leaving the kids, going to a place that I didn't really want to go to (it would be horrid to die period - but particularly egregious if it was going someplace wretched).

Fortunately I did survive the trip and spent the next 10 months thinking of scenarios, interactions and dialogue of three kids as they grew up without their parents. Things would pop into my head and I would overhear exchanges that just fit into the characters that were lodged inside of me.

So I started The Bee Tree on November 1st not sure if I would get to November 30th with a complete novel. I decided to write 1700 words a day and was surprised at how easily I could write. I'm not saying I've been writing well. The point of writing in a month is to create lots of quantity, not quality. That is what December is for - National Novel Editing Month (NaNoEdMo).

A funny thing is happening as I near the last 5000 words. The characters are leaving me. They are saying goodbye and the ending is making sense. While I originally thought it would be a complete purge, I'm a little sad that they won't be visiting me anymore. It is as if they are finally out and will let me have that brain space back.