NaNoWriMo :: NaNoWriMo Blog

"He went from impish 71-year-old to bedridden man who couldn't speak, so I tapped out my frustrations in a novel about a family getting naked by mistake when their car breaks down near a nudist camp."

"In November 2005 I finished my NaNoWriMo novel despite a case of pneumonia. I believe my illness was induced by the stress I felt when my father had a stroke. He went from impish 71-year-old to bedridden man who couldn't speak, so I tapped out my frustrations in a novel about a family getting naked by mistake when their car breaks down near a nudist camp. Footnote to novel: my father regained his speech and limited physical ability. My husband and Ibought him a tricycle for Father's Day, 2007.

Last fall, I was 800 words into my novel, feeling pretty good that it was 11 a.m. and I'd written enough to deserve the mini candy bars I had munched. The phone rang and a man told me that my husband had been in a horrific accident. End of that novel.

The upside of that dramedy? My husband still has his hand, we are fighting an $11,000 helicopter bill, and I am writing profiles for college magazines rather than novels for fun and pleasure. Things were pretty lousy for a while but a couple of months ago, everything began to seem normal.

Two weeks ago, my dad had another stroke, and perhaps because I was novelistic when he had his first one, I am thinking of finishing the novel I didn't finish last fall. Between trips to visit him at rehab, words drift at me like clumps of clouds. Downstairs, the cupboard still holds the crappy candy that accompanied the candy bars I ate November 1st.

Will I try NaNoWriMo again? Yes, because regardless of the writing month's associations with grave family situations, I believe in its zany inspiration.

Besides, I'd buy deadlines at the mall if they sold them."

—Amy Halloran

Amy is a writer living in upstate New York with her family and 15 chickens.

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