So You Want to Write a Book? #NaNoWriMo
There’s a stat floating around out there that 81% of Americans think they have a book in them. That’s about 200 million people…thinking about it…knowing they have a story (or two) to share. I don’t doubt it. That they have great stories. We all do, I’m sure of it. But how many will actually sit down and pound it out?
I did it a few years ago. I didn’t publish it at the time. It’s loosely based on my own life and there are some people who aren’t going to like the way they’re portrayed (hey, if you write the book, you can make the mean kid in junior high school ugly and in jail now if you want to). But I’ve gotten to the point that I don’t know if I care anymore what those people who treated me poorly think about my book. They can go write their own and spin their own version of reality.
I also didn’t like my ending. I was going through a lot of stuff a couple years back and really wanted a different ending to the book. I thought waiting a couple years would lead to better results in real life, and, since this book is loosely based on my life (something a writer pal calls ‘faction’), I was kinda’ hoping real life would work out differently, too.
It hasn’t.
So, the happy ending will have to come in part two. My next book.
But I digress. The point is we can all write a book. Seriously. I’m not saying they’ll all be good, but I think it’s therapeutic to get it out of your head and onto paper…or computer space…or wherever it is you store your brain child.
If you have any desire whatsoever to write, check out NaNoWriMo. It’s something I stumbled across several years ago and was enough to get my first book out of me. It stands for National Novel Writers Month. People around the world sign up to write a book–all in one month. You start November 1st. You must be done by November 30th. You can’t cheat and start early. The challenge is part of the fun. A book in NaNoWriMo world is a minimum of 50,000 words. I think that averages out to about 1666 words a day. That number sounds evil, so let’s round it up to 1667. Or, you can do it like I did, and write double that for the first couple days…then quit for several weeks, and panic with less than a week left and write like a maniac until you meet your quota. I only wrote for about eight days. The book poured out of me.
I have yet to go back and edit mine. I’m thinking it’s time.
And if you’re thinking it’s time to get your book out of your brain, check out NaNoWriMo.org. It’s a great community of writers who will help inspire you, motivate you, and keep you going.
If you don’t finish, you haven’t lost anything. If you do, they call you a NaNoWriMo winner and who knows what could become of the book, should you decide the world should read it.
Good luck!
