Slowly but surely, the temperature is dropping, the leaves are changing, the days are shortening, and fall is underway. It's about time. I can't wait for the day when I can leave work and walk out to my car and not sweat incessantly by the time I climb into my car. It'd be nice to not have to desperately crank the A.C. and slowly hate absolutely everything for the first five minutes while the cool takes over. I've always really liked fall, for more reasons than pumpkin spice lattes and Halloween. Mostly, it's because of the memories. In seventh grade, I discovered a guy who I thought was the most perfect human being on the planet and I spent all of September and October hung up on him. In ninth grade, I had finally arrived in life, after years and years of blending in or standing out for all the wrong reasons and I was asked to the Homecoming dance. In tenth grade, I had my first kiss with my first boyfriend and the fall months were our Honeymoon months. Junior year, the same exact thing happened, I fell in love during the fall. And then finally, senior year, I finally got my life together to focus on my future (even though it didn't last long, see Boyfriends, Babies, and Broken Heat). The fall after my senior year are where some of the best memories with my husband-to-be come from and when that time of year comes around, I can't help but be super calm and serene with the weather and the memories.
As if I needed another reason to absolutely love fall, NaNoWriMo is in the near future. I've had some failed attempts in the past with NaNoWriMo but I am ready for 2016 to be the year that I redeem myself. The first year I'd ever even heard of it, I was sixteen and taking a creative writing class in high school. Needless to say, my nights after school were spent sitting in my car in the field behind my then-boyfriend's house - when I should've been hard at work adding to my word count. The only attempt I was making toward my 50,000 word goal was five days a week, the hour and a half of class that was allotted to us. Sadly, I finished with a measly word count of under 12,000.
However, this is a brand new year. I invested in a brand new computer, top of the line. It was originally $1400 and I was able to only pay about $300, after discounts and gift cards. For the first time, I have a laptop that can go with me wherever I want. It fits right into my handbag and the battery life is long-lasting. I actually partly feel like the main character in a book series I used to read, named Madison Finn. I can devote an hour a day to writing during the work day, if I spend both of my fifteen minute breaks and half hour lunch plugging away. Then, I can spend endless time each evening adding to it. In order to make goal, two thousand words a day will get me there, and then some. I just need to figure out a good plot I can stick with. The other issue with NaNoWriMo of 2011, I had no idea where to go with my storyline. And I paid too close attention to little details, like class schedules and maps of the town. I think what I should be doing now until the end of October is building a story line and then filling in all the little details, like the town map and whatever else I might need. I need to be geared up to start putting words onto document on November 1st and then have the fuel to keep on going without stopping.
Now... here comes the hardest part. I have a whole bunch of notes on my iPhone about storylines, potential events, potential plot twists, and character backgrounds. However, none of it can be tied together to be one 50,000 word best-seller. It's going to be the absolute hardest part to get everything started. However, I stumbled upon contact information for Laura Dower, the author of From the Files of Madison Finn and she does creative writing workshops. I think it'd be neat to get some of my writing friends together and have her come to town to do a workshop (depending on cost, of course). I'd love to learn from here. I'd also love to learn from Sarah Dessen. I just started reading the last book in my checklist of books that she's written. Her next one doesn't come out until summer of 2017.
So, anyways, after practicing for NaNoWriMo today, I spent both of my fifteen minute breaks and my half hour lunch break working on a word document, not really writing anything specific, just keeping a word count up. It wasn't easy. However, I made the daily minimum word count just during those breaks. I more than made the word count, I did extra. On average, a person should type about 1,667 words a day to keep up with the 50,000 final word goal. Currently, on a document I created this morning at work, my word count is 2,108. And I haven't even touched the document in my free time. It won't be easy. I'll have to clean out my handbag because carrying all the stuff in it that I do right now is making it really heavy, so I need to get rid of things I don't need so I have enough room for my laptop. Also, it's going to mean spending all my free time at work still on a computer - which I already spend eight hours a day. I'll have to take some free time right after work and take walks outside just to get some fresh air. That's really important to the creative writing process. And, just to see if I can do it, just to make sure I've had enough practice, I'm having my own PreNaNoWriMo. That's right. The month of October belongs to me.
