a little down time

I've been on vacation this week - what a nice treat! - and spent most of it reading or with friends or writing. Yep, writing. Not sermons, not lesson plans, but good ole fashion fiction. I've always been a writer and this month several friends of mine have signed up for National Novel Writing Month - NaNoWriMo - where we are challenged to write a 50,000 word novel in a the month of Novemeber. They've gotten me to sign up to.

At first, I was fairly intimidated. 50,000 is a lot to write in 30 days and other than this vacation, I don't have a whole lot of free time on my hands. Plus while I enjoy writing, I always hit a spot where I run out of ideas or energy or something.

The great thing about this project, however, is that you aren't trying to write something brilliant. You're just trying to get to 50,000 words. So that means I don't have to spend time weighing different options in direction or going back and meticulously editing what I've written. I write and then I write somemore, no matter how good or bad I think my prose is. And I'm seeing results. Not only in my word count, but in my desire. I want to write. Today I didn't because I didn't have time (truly) and I could tell I missed it. I'd even go so far as to say that while driving home from visiting a friend, I craved writing and was frustrated I couldn't get out my pen and paper. And just think, a week or so ago it wouldn't have even crossed my mind.

Will I have a brilliant novel by the end of the month? Probably not. But I hope to have a novel of at least 50,000 words. And I know I'll have the memories and effects of this process.