It's NaNo Time!

I stumbled across the National Novel Writing Month a few days ago. A little googling led me to the NaNoWriMo - write a novel (50,000 words at that!) in 30 days and relish the feeling when you are done. November is novel writing month. Sound simple enough? I took out my calculator and it turns out to be about 2000 words a day (if I'm lucky!) to finish before the deadline. Can I do it? I am up for the challenge and I have my novel synopsis ready and outline in the making!

The idea I chose was not one I would normally pursue seriously. I mean that innocently. I have been wrestling with several novel and short story ideas for years now - literally. I get a brilliant idea then I sit down and start plotting it then something happens. It all evaporates. Writers block hits me and I wrap it up even before it has begun. When I do finally force myself to put pen to paper or finger to keyboard and drum away at the words that do not seem to come too easily, the prose sounds stilted. So I give up again. It have running this recurring cycle for years now so when NaNoWriMo came along I jumped at it. My ideas are always complex and filled with twists and turns. I am such a complicated soul! That is why I decided my novel for NaNoWriMo would be a children's novel, a fantasy. An idea I started way back when I was still in school but never got it to materialise. I figured that I have no stakes in this. All the recent ideas I have had had been for more mature audiences; literary and dealing with real issues for real people. If I can pen 50,000 words in fantasy then I will know that I still have the imagination and the creativity to expand my ideas into real novels. That and the fact that I will have the motivation to rework my children's story after NaNo is over to make it into a real gem!

NaNo is my chance to rediscover the writer in me and to break down the barriers that are manifested in writers block. I am all set and ready to pen away. Perhaps I will finally set myself free.