One ‘Wrimo’s tale toward 50k words
Nanowrimo, T minus 5 days
Feeling: hopeful; excitement tempered by word count
Current word count: 0
(questioning whether bulleted list of ideas counts towards word count, prior to 11/1 … what constitutes “cheating,” exactly?)
Giving my partner all of two hours’ notice on the way back from our daughter’s school camping trip, I mentioned in a non-committal, hope-you-say-it’s-impossible kind of way, that there was a kickoff meeting for the SF Nanowrimos downtown and I kind of wanted to go.
Got home. Unpacked. Let dozens of things distract me.
“Are you going?” he asked.
Crap. Guess he was taking this seriously, or wasn’t willing to be my excuse.
He had helped me already, on Saturday morning over our second cups of coffee, when I asked him his opinion about the vague plot line I’d been toying with for my ‘wrimo novel. He took my idea and gave me more information, background, with the astuteness he has in understanding personalities and motivations.
And, it sounds like he took me seriously that I wanted to participate.
So, fueled by his support, that unravelled my excuses, I drove my ‘wrimo self over to the Yerba Buena gardens, searched around the playground, got surprisingly clear directions by a park cleanup lady with Spanish-accented halting English, and joined a circle of ten people (which became 16 or 17 after an hour).
I got a sympathetic (and probably empathetic) chuckle when I said my idea “as of two days ago” was a crossover YA/adult novel about a daughter’s rebellion from her oppressive mother.
Things I learned today …
- I am not the only person that uses baby books for name inspiration.
- A lot of ‘wrimos are writing fantasy horror, or sci-fi thrillers, or some combination of the both.
- It gets cold sitting outside of the Metreon at 4pm in late October
- To garner donations for A Night of Writing Dangerously, one ‘wrimo suggested telling those who donated that they would have character namesakes in her novel (she also said she would kill these characters off gently and humanely). If you donate to me, I promise to create a character with your name, but not kill you.
- I am not the only person who thinks fifty thousand words is a lot.
The biggest takeaway for me, though, was to show up and meet other writers. The last two ‘wrimos I did solo, abstaining from all possible write-ins, with a subtle longing. Writing is such a solitary journey, I’m looking forward to having a virtual, and possible IRL group of travelers to share the tribulations.
Attending the kickoff must have helped because my partner remarked I looked refreshed when I walked in the door. A couple hours in the brisk autumn San Francisco air talking about writing will do that to me, along with a notebook full of ideas for scenes.
