NaNoWriMo :: NaNoWriMo Blog

"My inexperience pierced holes into my ship like a porcupine in a plastic bag."

"In July of last year, I was what one might call a 'struggling soon-to-be-writer.' I wasn't much of a writer yet, as I hadn't ever finished anything. (The only thing I'd ever done for non-school purposes was a 3-page story about John Cage's song that was made up of only silence. I still think it's amazing that I wrote three pages about nothing.) I had never done anything large scale—like writing a novel. Oh no! That was left to the professionals.

I had a story to tell, but had not roughed the seas of attemptive noveling yet. I knew my Boat of Noveling would sink. My inexperience pieced holes into my ship like a porcupine in a plastic bag.

However, as I said, it was July of last year, when I became a 'soon to be writer.' I dreamed up this cliched-beyond-belief story, and decided to see if I could write it. So I started typing away in the story that I am slightly embarrassed to even mention now.

Only a week after I started writing, I found out about NaNoWriMo from my sister, who knew a WriMo. I checked it out, and fell into the fascinating, soul-eating adventure that is called NaNo.

Of all the wonderful things NaNo '07 gave me—
a whopping bucket of fun, addicting forums, cool people to meet, and awesome pep-talks—my two favorite things would have to be: 1) the confidence to just get out there and type for the fun of it, and not because the story has to be readable and 2) an introduction to a character who is sure to follow me around for the rest of my life, showing up at Joe's Crab Shack for a dance, and meeting me at work. (Yes, those are some of the places I have seen him post-NaNo '07.)

The confidence to write is perhaps the most important item in my doggy-bag from NaNo, but I figure everyone will say something just as cliched as I will, so I won't attempt to talk too much about it. I will only say that NaNo gave me the confidence and ability to move from being a 'struggling soon-to-be-writer' to an actual, honest-to-goodness writer. It was an amazing transition, and my life will never be the same again. (Now people can stare at me when I say I'm a writer, like they did when I told them I was a musician.)

I will enjoy the confidence boost quite a bit, but I have to admit, hanging out with Jimmy (my MMC from NaNo '07) is more fun than sitting on a log, contemplating my confidence level. I loved spending a month with Jimmy, in the crazy pursuit of a ridiculous robber who stole burritos at gunpoint. Let me tell you, it was the most meaningful attempt at bounty hunting I've experienced yet. I plan on running off with Jimmy again sometime, to do some more criminal hunting. Unfortunately, I have to take his girlfriend with us. Bummer. If she had a little more character development, (which I'm trying to edit into my NaNo right now), then maybe I wouldn't be so annoyed at her tagging along. I have to admit though, when she's with Jimmy, they click. So I'll keep her, for Jimmy's sake.

To sum up: NaNo was tons of fun, gave me a confidence that will only be shaken (a little) by a rejection letter, and the knowledge of who to take with me when I go fishing or on some other rollicking romp through a day that needs livening up.

NaNo also taught me two things about characters: 1) I learned to let a character be who he or she wants to be, because s/he will tell you how to fit her/him into the story later. 2) I learned to listen to the characters in my head, and let them do what they want, because they know the story better than I do. Even the little blobs of half-characters sometimes know more than I do. What do you know—my Boat Of Noveling was not actually punctured by my inexperience! What I thought were holes actually turned out to be little blobby pieces of characters who wanted to go on great journeys with me. Yay! Cohorts for my future noveling adventures!"

—Laura aka Christian Writer

Laura lives in Texas, has done/won NaNo once, and likes Ring-tailed Lemurs best, by far.

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