Wisdom Quest Arts and Coaching

I wrote 50,000 words during November, 2010!

So what is NaNoWriMo? I first learned about it during a casual brunch at a friend’s home where she hosted a small group of her women friends. Being a life coach and facilitator of women’s programs, she asked us to sit in a sharing circle and participate.

 One woman mentioned she had enrolled in NaNoWriMo again to work on another screenplay. She said she did her best writing of the year during the month of November because she could tap into the energy source of other writers from around the world.

 Turns out NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month, has been around since 1999. This organization is a non-profit which assists writers, especially young writers, to improve their skills. Every year in November they host this worldwide event to inspire writers of every age and from all walks of life. It is also their primary fundraising campaign to keep going. People commit to writing 50,000 words or about 175 pages during the month of November. Each person enrolled gets their own web page which he/she can use to update daily word counts, participate in forums in his/her communities, or others, and link up with numerous supports to stay motivated.

 When the intricate, glass talking stone passed to me, I’d decided I wanted to ‘dive in the deep end’ and do something crazy too. Nothing like pushing the  rest of my life aside to write a book in a month. I told everyone, “I have this book I’ve been working on for years and doggone it, I’m going to finish it. Just needs more editing–this is my chance. But there is this other book, the one about my colorful, eccentric father from the deep south. Maybe I can work a little on it too.”

 The woman across from me said, “Wait a minute. I’m going to encourage you to put the ‘other book’ to the side for awhile longer and only work on that book about your father. When you talked about it your face completely lit up.”

 Then the host said, “Yes I’m ready to buy the book right now, and I don’t even know anything about it.”

 So when I returned home that afternoon, I enrolled with one week to the starting line. I’d never written every day, nor had I ever composed a novel, yet I signed up anyway.

 It is now November 22, and I’m getting closer to the finish line. I know that I will reach it. So what is NaNoWriMo? As a writer, it is one of the best choices I’ve ever made. I now know I can commit to writing every day. In fact it has become like a drug which I cannot get enough of. I did push aside the ‘other book’ and am spending all of my time crafting a blend of fiction and non-fiction, called “Houseboys Wanted.” When I started out I had no idea how I’d be able to write so much in so little time. Yet the words are flowing out of me like a winding stream taking me to places I had no idea I could go. All due to my saying yes to LIFE and NaNoWriMo! http://www.nanowrimo.org/