Get To Work, Snowman Says

Yesterday was the first day of November, which isn’t any day particularly special, I suppose.  Unless you’re in the United States and you’re relieved that the end of this damn election is in sight.  Which I am.  But this is not why I marked the day.  The first of November began National Novel Writing Month, commonly referred to as NaNoWriMo.  And for the first time since I learned about it in 2008, I will be participating.

Now, you might say, But Eileen, you’re a writer.  Wouldn’t you have done it before?  And you would be right.  I should have taken part in this event long before now.  My craft is writing, and my medium is novels.  To teach myself how to write a novel in a month would have been very useful for my career and for my process.  And the very essence of NaNo is to help writers get work done, without worrying about editing.  Editing comes later—this month is for the pure flow of ideas onto paper.

The reason I haven’t done it before is because I believed I didn’t have time.  November was always the last full month of the semester, the time for pulling together final projects and thinking about studying for exams.  (I never actually did study.  Well, maybe once—it didn’t help.)  Added to that I had work and extracurriculars, and I always had to spend some time wishing it were December already.  So I didn’t set aside time to write.

But I’ve realized something—something that should have been obvious to me all along.  I’m always going to be busy.  This year I’m out of school, and I'm working thirty-five hours a week—more this week—and my free time is taken up with music and errands.  If I wait until I have time to write, I’ll be waiting years.  I might be waiting forever.  And I do need to write, in more than just snatched moments on my off days.  I need to make room for it in my life.

Therefore there is a note on my wall now that reads, “Did you write today?  No?  NO SLEEP” and in the corner of it, a snowman with drawn-on evil eyebrows laughs at me.  And I mean to enforce this law religiously.  At least 2,000 words a day, or the day isn’t over.  Because if I don’t write, I don’t have a right to call myself a writer, and if I’m not a writer, what am I?