I know, I know. Although I've met many awesome new people in the past two months, I had taken on so many extra projects at work (where I met these new people!) which forced me to take a break from writing. And then there was Nanowrimo. Oh, Nano. In my world, it's called "pain" but I do it to myself.
Each year, there's a writing event called National Novel Writing Month. I've participated in previous years but didn't get far. The premise is this: Writers are challenged to write a novel in the month of November. 50,000 words, to be exact. That equals out to 1,666 words per night or to put it in high schoolers' terms "a two-page essay per night." Easy, right? It would be a piece of cake if that were true. But writing a two-page essay per night and making all of those two-page essays connect in a logical and entertaining manner is hard. HARD. I began writing an autobiography written in the third person. I found out on Day Two that my brother was doing the same. Interesting. But I kept truckin along. They say you just have to keep writing. Don't edit. Don't go back. You can edit later. That was my safety net. I wasn't going to turn in this "essay" every morning. It didn't have to be perfect.
I kept telling myself that I can go back in a month and make a second draft. Yeah, that'll happen.
As I was on this adventure (there are still a few days left, but I'm pretty much done with 43,000 words), I met Kim. Kim is another writer and happens to be my school's rep for a book company called BookJams. Kim came in trying to sell me her wares like many salespeople do each week. I actually liked her product though. BookJams are this: Each BookJam set has a theme like "Teen Angst" or "Mythical Creatures" (read: vampires and warewolves.) Each set includes a class set of three or four novels, one novel which was written by the founder of the company and the others being popular novels for teens. With each novel comes teaching lessons, workbooks, quizzes, etc. What stood out about this company versus others is that the novels are current and engaging for today's teens.
I told Kim that in order to purchase a set for $1,600, I'd have to write a grant or receive funds from donors. In the meantime, she noticed that I was wearing the official "NaNoWriMo" T-shirt and squealed. "Oh my word! Do you do NaNo?!?" she asked exuberantly. I was just as giddy as she, as I hadn't met anyone who knew about NaNo other than my brother and a few high school friends. I met Kim on Day Four of NaNo. It is now Day 27 and we've had a strange but exciting 23-day friendship which has revolved around writing and motivating and impressing each other. I felt like Kim was my marathon buddy. Each day, in addition to asking how many words I wrote the night before, she asked me how I've come with my grant writing (she wants to make a sale, you know!)
One day, around Day 16, Kim decided to completely change what she was writing. She started out writing a sad "Notebook"-style novel. Midway through, she was driving down the street and almost hit a bicyclist who was on HIS cell phone during rush hour traffic. She had a better idea for a novel - write about different ways people die. Interestingly enough, she stopped what she was writing and took one night to figure out how to blend the two stories. I warned her not to turn it into "The Five People You Meet in Heaven - The Sequel" and she assured me it wouldn't be. It's now a rough sketch of what very well may be a hit, from the parts I've read.
I've told Kim that I hope our friendship doesn't end on November 30th, when we no longer HAVE to hold each other's hand.
Kim told me that as long as she has a book to write, and since I haven't purchased her product yet, she will not go away. I love that writing brought the two of us together.
