NaNoWriMo :: NaNoWriMo Blog

"It kept me going, and though at times my body, quite accustomed to home-cooked organic fare, rebelled at my sudden diet of Coca-Cola, coffee, and fast food, I felt better at my keyboard than I had in years."

"All I ever wanted was to get paid to write and edit. And now that I do, I realize I want even more! I need the stories in my head to take over for awhile, and drown out the real world. Not that it isn't a nice real world I live in, mind you. It's just that my fiction fantasies seem so much more interesting at times.

And so I challenged my brother, also afflicted with the writer's curse, to complete NaNoWriMo with me. Although I had already published several books as an editor, I suddenly found myself relearning everything as I delved into my science fiction universe. A trip to Central America last summer inspired me, but for months I did little except take notes. I found that on the very first day of NaNoWriMo, I wrote with a sort of ambitious fervor I've never experienced before. It kept me going, and though at times my body, quite accustomed to home-cooked organic fare, rebelled at my sudden diet of Coca Cola, coffee, and fast food, I felt better at my keyboard than I had in years.

Although quite accustomed to deadlines, this was different, and somehow I felt better seeing my word count fly past 50,000 than I did after seeing my name in print for the first time. Don't ask me to explain it. I just felt free, and my imagination soared, and the characters surprised me, and the plot kept finding new ways to entangle me. And I fell more in love than ever with my friend the written word.

I'm still finishing up the final touches on what looks to be a 150,000 word project, but I know I never would have gotten this thing off the ground without all of you at NaNoWriMo, especially my local groups, whose criticisms, ideas, and opinions gave me the courage to write surprisingly vulnerable, poetic language far removed from the succinct 800 word articles or dusty, rambling history epics that had come to dominate my literary life.

Thanks for giving me just what I needed, and inspiring me to aspire for even more than I dreamed of!"

—Elizabeth Fernandez

Elizabeth is an editor and freelance writer, delving back into fiction after a long departure for the world of non-fiction journalism and history book publishing. She spent her whole life telling stories, until making them up in her head felt like an automatic and ongoing project. During college and afterwards, Elizabeth spent all her free time getting her career in journalism and publishing off the ground, only to find herself missing her fantasies. So she decided to cut back on the freelancing and stick to highly unprofitable science fiction instead!

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