NaNoWriMo is just around the corner!
Oct. 20th, 2007 09:27 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
megwritesIf anyone wants to be my "writing" buddy, my profile is here. I've friended as many of my friends as I could find, but if there's anyone I missed or who isn't going under their usual nom de interweb, I'd love to find you as well.
So many people are doing NaNoWriMo this year, and it makes me really happy.
It is my firm belief that everyone should at least once in their life try to write a novel. I believe that we should all be writers.
Then again, I can't imagine a world where writing isn't a cornerstone of my being. I kind of wish I could explain that to people in a way that would make them understand. I figured out that I wanted to be a writer when I was six years old. That's seventeen years of making up stories and playing pretend on paper and scribbling poetry and writing in journals (I kept my first diary when I was in the 3rd grade, IIRC, at age eight) and reading books about how to write, and admiring writers, and spending Saturdays in the library reading every thing I could reach when every other kid was doing something else normal.
Yeah, I was the kid who's parents had to *ground* her from the library when she got in trouble. I loved it that much. It was quiet, lots of books, lots of tables for writing and reading. If you were ever so clever you could sneak in a little snack. They even had stools for short people to reach the tall shelves. Even better if I had my dinky little walkman with me.
So. Seventeen years. There are a good amount of people on planet Earth who can't even say they've been alive as long as I've wanted to be a writer. Presidents have come and gone. There are technologies that weren't invented yet when I discovered that writing was it for me. There are clothes and hairstyles that have gone out of style, come back into style, and gone out again since I decided I wanted to be a writer.
So maybe you can understand how writing has been an unwavering, unquestionable constant in my life. Maybe you can understand now why I start with this and end with it. Why it's part of my Alpha and Omega, why it doesn't matter if you take my computer, take all the pen and paper in the world, or even chop off my hands that I'll find a way.
Maybe I'll get published, maybe I won't. Maybe I'll make my living from writing, maybe I won't. Maybe I'll write fifty more novels, maybe I won't. Maybe next year I'll decide to give up this crazy publication dream, maybe I won't.
But I will always be writing.
I started talking about NaNoWriMo, didn't I? Huh.
So many people are doing NaNoWriMo this year, and it makes me really happy.
It is my firm belief that everyone should at least once in their life try to write a novel. I believe that we should all be writers.
Then again, I can't imagine a world where writing isn't a cornerstone of my being. I kind of wish I could explain that to people in a way that would make them understand. I figured out that I wanted to be a writer when I was six years old. That's seventeen years of making up stories and playing pretend on paper and scribbling poetry and writing in journals (I kept my first diary when I was in the 3rd grade, IIRC, at age eight) and reading books about how to write, and admiring writers, and spending Saturdays in the library reading every thing I could reach when every other kid was doing something else normal.
Yeah, I was the kid who's parents had to *ground* her from the library when she got in trouble. I loved it that much. It was quiet, lots of books, lots of tables for writing and reading. If you were ever so clever you could sneak in a little snack. They even had stools for short people to reach the tall shelves. Even better if I had my dinky little walkman with me.
So. Seventeen years. There are a good amount of people on planet Earth who can't even say they've been alive as long as I've wanted to be a writer. Presidents have come and gone. There are technologies that weren't invented yet when I discovered that writing was it for me. There are clothes and hairstyles that have gone out of style, come back into style, and gone out again since I decided I wanted to be a writer.
So maybe you can understand how writing has been an unwavering, unquestionable constant in my life. Maybe you can understand now why I start with this and end with it. Why it's part of my Alpha and Omega, why it doesn't matter if you take my computer, take all the pen and paper in the world, or even chop off my hands that I'll find a way.
Maybe I'll get published, maybe I won't. Maybe I'll make my living from writing, maybe I won't. Maybe I'll write fifty more novels, maybe I won't. Maybe next year I'll decide to give up this crazy publication dream, maybe I won't.
But I will always be writing.
I started talking about NaNoWriMo, didn't I? Huh.
no subject
Date: 2007-10-20 01:49 pm (UTC)My handle there is Spellsinger.
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Date: 2007-10-20 01:50 pm (UTC)It's not about that, really, but about sharing this great thing that is true and that so many of us can empathize with.
I had an absent (working) father, a mom who was busy, and I was a homely, lonely child who moved around a lot. I think that without books, I just would not have made it through. They were my secret defense against the bullies and the incomprehensibleness of the world.
Lovely post.
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Date: 2007-10-29 05:18 pm (UTC)Mayhaps, but I don't know if I'd submit it, even if there was. Those Chicken Soup books are sappier than a forest full of maple trees. And they sorta give me brain!diabeetus from all the syrupy-sweetness. And since I already am contending with actual diabetes, it's best not to tempt fate.
It's not about that, really, but about sharing this great thing that is true and that so many of us can empathize with.
I know. So many writers I know have a story like mine. Details are changed, and some have stories that are also more tragic than mine. But it makes me wonder if there's such thing as a "normal" writer, or if somehow being just a little bit damaged and off-kilter and not-normal is a requirement for this craft/art/profession.
Me? I got it lucky compared to some. But still, without books and writing and my imagination, I think I'd be dead right now.