Sometimes it takes me a while to get around to something, even if I really want to do it. For years I've tried to start doing National Novel Writing Month, fondly referred to by participants as NaNoWriMo. I can never just bite the bullet. I never have an idea that's formulated enough to carry out. You can't just sit down and write 50,000 words - it might turn out to be crap. Not that I'm not a fan of wasting time and writing things no one may ever read. I think of the project as getting the ball rolling, but why bother if my idea isn't fleshed out.
This coming from a non-planner. I am farthest from a planner. If I even bother to develop a plan, I usually completely forget about it. As a writer, this proves a challenge. See, this time around I even have a plot idea that's a really basic outline. By really basic, I mean: written in my random ideas and blurbs notebook that I keep in my purse for moments when creativity interrupts my normal daily activity.
It's not fully fleshed out, though. Like I have the very skeleton of my story, but I have no idea how to start; what tense should I write in? Who's perspective is the story told from? (Why does this guy sitting next to me at the coffee shop keep trying to read what I'm writing as if I don't notice?) I want so badly to tell it from the first-person, but I know that's hard. It's hard but when you read it, it's kind of brilliant. So maybe, first-person it is.
The reality is, much like anything else I click with doing, I don't actually know a whole lot of technical stuff, I just know what it should look like. I know what reads well, or sounds right, or looks good. Does it mean I'm technically gifted? Not at all. In fact, for the most part I'm not, and I hate the idea that anyone might be...but I know they might be. Jealousy, I suppose.
And there you see, a picture of why I can manage to avoid starting NaNoWriMo. I think I need to just take the leap. As always, I'm already a day behind.
