A-writing I will go, or taking the NaNoWriMo challenge

I’m challenging myself this month, and it’s not just the challenge of bringing down my cholesterol numbers with lots of Cheerios and tuna. It’s a more personal challenge that, if I’m lucky, could become a little more public one. It’s the NaNoWriMo challenge.

Huh? you ask.

NaNoWriMo —National Novel Writing Month.

For 14 years, NaNoWriMo has challenged writers —established writers, fledgling writers, would-be writers, wannabe writers and even scribblers —to produce a novel during the 30 days of November.

Lots of people want to be writers. At last count, the 2013 NaNoWriMo had 230,532 participants from around the world. The goal is to write 50,000 words in a month, which boils down to 1,667 words a day average. I don’t know if I can do that, but I do know some of my court stories, and even a few columns, have gotten close to that.

There have been success stories from National Novel Writing Month. According to one article I read, 250 novels produced during NaNoWriMo have been published. “Water for Elephants” by Sara Gruen was a NaNoWriMo project, and it even became a movie. Of course, I get the impression that getting through NaNoWriMo is a success.

Several of my Facebook friends who are writers have taken part in this project during the last few years and are doing it again this year, too. Some have reached or exceeded the goal, some didn’t, but it still seemed as if they all had a good time getting their creative juices flowing and communing with one another as they strived to hammer out 50,000 words.

For many of them, it also involved writing around a work or school schedule as well. I’ve observed among my writing friends that few are full-time writers. Even for many of them, it’s not as lucrative a career as people might imagine; for every Stephen King or Stephanie Myer or John Grisham who will never have another financial care, you’ll find a hundred who are successful but still occasionally have a hard time meeting the monthly bills. That’s why so many writers still have full-time jobs, and those who don’t tend to live frugally.

Writing is a labor of love, and while financial success is great, being able to create something of your own that other people appreciate is just as important. As I learned long ago, if you want to get rich, don’t go into the newspaper business. The same applies to writing. Get into it because it’s something you love, not a way to get rich.

Writing is why I went into the newspaper business in the first place. That, and I thought it would beat working for a living. (Little did I know in those younger, innocent days.) Being a writer is what I wanted to be, even if I saw it with idealized eyes and dreamed of making my fortune with my words. Now, a lot older and a lot less innocent, I realize the words and stories, and the pleasure of working with them, are what’s important. Although, making a little extra money wouldn’t be bad, either.

I guess it’s because I became a reader early and fell in love with words and stories, and sometimes thought, “I could do that.” I still do. When I was a lad lo so many years ago, I’d write stories sometimes with ideas from something I’d read or seen. In the eighth grade I even started writing a World War II novel, combining an idea from a movie I’d seen and using classmates as characters (making them grownups, of course). Fortunately, that has been lost to time.

When I became a newspaperman, writing nonfiction became my priority (although I’ve had some question the validity of it being nonfiction). I’ve still dabbled with short stories and novels that started but never were finished. I have managed to publish two books, collections of my columns (which —shameless plug —could be a nice gift for a reader this holiday season). I still haven’t written “the great American novel,” or even the mediocre American novel. For now, I’d be satisfied with the “it’s OK American novel.”

Maybe with NaNoWriMo I’ll buckle down and get something finished. It may mean less reality TV, it may even mean missing “Duck Dynasty” (which is in reruns again anyway), but I can handle that. It means I’ll need to squeeze in productive writing time whenever I can. Besides trying to complete the NaNoWriMo challenge, I also have the incentive of having shared this little venture with you, which means I need to produce something by the end of November.

I have a story idea in my head, the seed of which was planted on a Sunday afternoon drive Kim and I took up to the Peel Ferry, and later started to sprout a little during my trip to Helena. I’ve had all kinds of story ideas, of all types and genres. I get seeds for story ideas everywhere, although for good or for bad they’ve remained in my head for the most part. This time, I’m going to see if that seed will grow anything. It’s definitely a little different from my news and column writing.

Now that I’ve exposed myself to the world —so to speak —I’ll need to produce something. I think I can do it, or at least get close, otherwise I wouldn’t have signed up for NaNoWriMo. So, wish me luck and, hopefully, I’ll have something good to report at the end of November. (By the way, to this point is 932 words.)