I can’t believe NaNoWriMo* is almost over! There’s no question I’ll cross the 50,000 word line with my novel today, three days early. I’ve been blessed this month “easy” writing.
Of course it’s never truly easy. The process always has its bleak “why in the hell am I writing this book anyway?” moments. While I think writing the first draft of this novel has been relatively smooth sailing, I wanted to share one of the reasons I write: so that I can read the kind of book I want to read.
If that sounds selfish or silly to you, please consider Toni Morrison’s advice:
If there’s a book you really want to read but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it. -Toni Morrison
Also, J.R.R. Tolkien (The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Hobbit) and C.S. Lewis (The Chronicles of Narnia) wrote their fantasy masterpieces mainly because they couldn’t find the kind of stories they wanted to read anywhere else.
So I will keep writing the stories I want to read and hope that someday (when the stories are ready) someone else will want to read them as well.
*National Novel Writing Month, a crazy 30-day writing marathon held every November.
I’ve done NanoWrimo several times, in fact it helped me through a year or two cope after I had surgery and chemo and radiation. I did hit the word mark but most of my writing were character sketches, story lines, research info, blah, blah, blah. I am still planning on finishing the story one of these days!
Over the years my NaNoWriMo efforts have gotten better. I think it’s just the practice of drafting from scratch. But every NaNo draft is that — a messy, ugly, needs a ton of work draft.