If you know don't know what that stands for, don't worry. I have not, on day four, resorted to putting random letters together and saying I love them. I'll wait until I'm at least in the twenties before that. But let me tell you, I'm really looking forward to doing a post on Ghanstafal.
Nanowrimo stands for NAtional NOvel WRIting MOnth. The creators decided that the only thing stopping them from being an author was the lack of a deadline. So they decided in November to attempt to write 50,000 words, which would give them a novel about the length of The Great Gatsby. More importantly, it would also give them permission to strut around, calling themselves authors. Long story short, the idea eventually made its way to my ears. In 2008, I tried it for the first time, and I WON! Which means that I wrote 50,000 words. I also tried in to 2009 (WIN) and 2010 (nope, got to 25k and called it quits).
Out of this insane process, I am now the proud author (strut, strut) of a science fiction novel rough draft. I am also the author of two fantasy partial drafts. Thanks to Nanowrimo I have written about flying horses on the sun, an escape scene that consisted of running into old people, a king forced into cross-dressing, and giant squid holograms (well, my husband helped with that one, funny what happens when I leave my computer open).
However, I got a whole lot more than that. In November of 2008, I had just moved to Virginia, and knew nobody but my husband (who had a rather annoying tendency to be gone for weeks and months on end. Something about being in the Navy). In November of 2009, I had just moved to Charleston, and at that point I knew four people. Both years I did Nano I met so many amazing, wonderful, talented people who just so happened to also be attempting to write many words in a small amount of time. Because of Nano, I got a whole string of really, really good friends.
Let me count...right off the top of my head, I got 14 friends who also did Nano (and I know I'm missing some). Adding to that the people that I know and love because someone who did Nano introduced me to them, and the number balloons to 26. Again, off the top of my head. Twenty-six amazing, talented, beautiful people in my life thanks to Nano. I count that as the biggest win.
In fact, tonight I'll be getting the chance to write with some of them. We loved getting together so much we couldn't stop in November. So here's to deadlines. If only all of them had such wonderful results.
:)
ReplyDelete