#140WC #NaNoWriMo

It’s my fourth year of National Novel Writing Month, which I complete along with my students, who set their own goals.

What I discover each year is this: inside us, should we let it happen, are stories and worlds that would not have existed had we not allowed ourselves the freedom and opportunity to let them out.

For me, I start with a character, a character I can imagine clearly in my mind. I plop them them into a setting and let them start thinking as the setting transforms around those thoughts. And from the setting and the character thinking, a problem emerges and the story begins.

From there, everything that occurs, spawns from those first words, flowing into another story, a flashback, a friend, and someone or something questionable. A world that did not exist before, people who did not exist before, appear in my mind and on paper [Scrivener and Google Docs], flowing and weaving a complex set of events, each character with his or her own struggles and attitude, and each fitting in to what needs to happen next. It’s awesome.

I wish everyone took the time and the opportunity to create. It’s simply hard fun.

Next November, won’t you give it a try?

WC: 202