October 30, 2013

NaNoWriMo 2013: An Intro

I've heard about NaNoWriMo in the past and envied those that took the time to do it, so this year I decided to jump in and be one of those people myself. For those of you that don't know, NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month - during the month of November, writers from all over the US join together to try to write 50,000 words in one month, which amounts to about 200 pages. As a very pregnant (is that a thing?) mom of one crazy toddler, I'm a bit nervous about taking this on, but I have a story that's been bouncing around my head and I just can't wait to get it written down.

There is a wonderful group of bloggers that will also be writing their own stories, so I've decided to link up with them every week to keep myself motivated. If you're participating, you should join in the fun!



My novel will be called The Road Less Traveled and will be based upon the life of my Great-Grandmother Hazel. I have bits and pieces of her history, so I'll be building the story around that. I'm so excited to delve deeper into her life and explore what she wants to be told. The short synopsis that I put on the NaNoWriMo site says,
At the age of 50, Hazel finds herself in the Warm Springs Mental Asylum in Montana, scheduled to have a lobotomy. She begins to recount the road that brought her to this end, including her life with an alcoholic father in Vermont, working at a factory in New York, marrying a soldier she barely knew, and moving cross-country to live on a ranch in Montana.
I've been trying to plan things out over the past week and I think that the biggest challenge I'll be dealing with is telling her whole story, without things getting tedious, especially since it will take place over such a large time period. I'm trying out a couple of ways of putting the story together, so hopefully I can get it all figured out!
Mostly, I'm just excited to get started writing and seeing what I come up with. It'll be a challenge, but a welcome one. 

Anyone else planning on participating? If you are, add me on NaNoWriMo!

2 comments:

  1. Your synopsis sounds like a story I would immediately add to my to-read shelf. And that it's all based on real life events is incredible too! Good luck with participating this year! I can't wait to see what you come up with. :)

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  2. Good luck with this! You have more courage than I, to tackle NaNo with a toddler (not to mention being pregnant. Though I wrote quite a bit when pregnant with my first. It's the second that kills you!).

    I'll buddy you on NaNo!

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