This article was written by Isaac Yebio of Walter Johnson High School
Buckle up, writers: the most eventful month of the year is finally upon us. National Novel Writing Month has begun with the start of November, and it’s taken a lot of work to keep up with the competition this year. The NaNoWriMo website is up and buzzing; writers from across the globe have joined together on online forums and discussions to band together on their craft. They have been publishing everything from sci-fi novels, romance stories, and modern-day retellings of mythological tales. You, too, can publish your work for others to see and read as well.
What is National Novel Writing Month, one might ask? Started in 1999 with as little as 21 participants, NaNoWriMo is an annual event challenging writers to complete a 50,000 word novel in the span of November 1st to November 30th. Established authors make online appearances to give tips and pep-talks to participants to keep them motivated through the writing process and publication. Throughout the event, participants receive advice that helps them hone their writing abilities and overcome adversities like writer’s block. Overall, the entire event encourages writers to work on their craft and gives insight on just how writing a book can be like.
The experience of writing a novel differs for each individual, but a constant in the majority of the first-time participants is the strange novelty of the process of creating such a large body of literature. Everything from the larger drafting processes, the completion of the manuscript, and the publishing procedure are rather foreign for first-time participants. These new writing processes can come off as a little bizarre, especially since most first-time participants are teenage students. But that isn’t where the majority of the oddity comes from. Instead, it occurs in realizing the necessity for creating a connection to one’s work.
I myself am one of these first-time participants and the experience has been quite mystifying. When I started at the beginning of the month I had little idea of what exactly I planned on writing about. A blank Google Docs page stared back at me every time I opened my computer to write. Words simply vanished from my head. While passionate about completing the event, I found myself getting bored with whatever I wrote five minutes after it putting it on the page. I was nerve-racked, and maintaining even a modicum of focus was nearly impossible.
While I’ve certainly experienced things such as writer’s block before, this was a much more intense feeling of artistic deprivation. There was no passion in anything I put down. Even if the plot might be literary gold, I had no connection to the story, and the characters simply phased off me. I was stumped, the event’s main goal turned out to be much harder than expected. I went onto the NaNoWriMo website to check the forums to see if anyone else had the same hurdles, and thankfully, I wasn’t alone in my trouble. Many had the same difficulty, and I saw various responses on how to tame one’s penury of inspiration. Some suggested reading the works of famous novelists for innovation; others encouraged writing down all the ideas, no matter how poor they might be, and connecting them to a fleshed-out story later on.
Despite all the advice from well-intentioned people, I didn’t find anything to help me overcome the lack of passion within me. So instead, I read over an old fictional narrative I wrote in 5th grade in hopes of rekindling my spark. While not possessing the best plot, grammar and transitions, the story was full of excitement and uniqueness; one could easily tell I wrote this with contentment and joy in my heart. Because at its core, writing harnesses the flow of ideas and emotions running through one’s soul and places them on a page for others to enjoy. One’s literary work should reflect this flow, and without it, sparking passion is nearly unattainable.
Writing a novel is strange in the sense that while it may have some connections back to reality, it has such a broad and varied look one can take at the world. That “look,” while possibly inspired by another, differs from each individual. When writing a novel about any genre or any theme, the passion and creativity must come from within. Where does one stand concerning the story? Do you connect to the plights of the central plot? Can you put yourself in your character’s shoes? These all are make-or-break questions that can determine the outcome of one’s writing process. Having this connection makes the process much easier, and writing 50,000 words a task done in the blink of an eye.
This is what makes writing novels, and NaNoWriMo, so much fun: finding that connection that sparks a writer’s drive to fully realize the potential of their work. And for me, it certainly helped me create a story that not only satisfied but thrilled my writing spirit. Though quite bizarre at first, NaNoWriMo allows writers to make the connection of a lifetime.
Comentarios