Gearing Up for NaNoWriMo

I've started getting ready for NaNoWriMo (that's National Novel Writing Month for you non-writer types), working on things like plot outlines and character sketches, so that I can spend every spare minute typing like a crazy person during the month of November. During NaNoWriMo, the goal is to write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days. That's 1,667 words a day. If you do as I do and take Sundays off (and, being realistic, Thanksgiving) that's 25 days at 2000 words a day. That's a little bit crazy, especially if you have distractions like a job that pays real money or a family that wants food and acknowledgement. Now nobody said those 50,000 words a day have to be wonderful (I can edit in December). They just have to be written or typed somewhere other than in my head. There's already plenty of interesting stuff floating around my brain. Some of it needs to GET OUT where it can be useful. So anyway, I'm gearing up for NaNoWriMo and just for kicks I hopped over to the NaNo website to see what's going on. They have this store with lots of merchandise sporting the logo, and while I'm kind of over the whole dark-T-shirt-with-words-on-it thing (strangers staring at my chest? No thanks.), I did find something I MUST HAVE! See the picture in the top left of this blog post? That's more than just a bracelet. It's a 2 GB USB jump drive disguised as a bracelet. How cool is that? I can literally wear my work-in-progress as a fashion accessory. And I guess it's smart to back up everything I write.

NaNoWriMo or Why My Nails Are Blue

I'm participating in NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) this year. The goal is to write a 50,000 word novel during the month of November. In accordance, in a total departure from my personal style, I have painted my fingernails a bright blue and they will stay that way until I hit the goal.

This is not as completely random as you might think.

Several years ago, I participated in a writing workshop where the instructor talked about transference. You can take some small object, hold it and concentrate on the feeling or emotion you want it to represent. In this case it had something to do with motivation to write. I chose a round, flattened blue glass rock, about an inch in diameter, the kind you might use in the bottom of an aquarium. It was a deep blue color, somewhere in the spectrum around sapphire, cobalt, and ultramarine. There's a paint color for the Ford Mustang called Kona Blue Metallic.

(On a side note, we also tried this technique in a weight loss group meeting once. The leader passed out some pretty rocks and told us they were to represent willpower. Unfortunately, my rock was the color of milk chocolate. Epic fail.)

I left the little blue rock sitting on the base of my computer monitor, and every time I looked at it, I felt guilty that I was not spending more time writing. At that time, I was working full time from home doing medical transcription. It's a job that requires sitting for 8 hours a day in front of a computer, listing to doctors' dictations, and typing as fast as you possibly can, with 100% accuracy. It was both mind-numbing and complex. Most days, by the time I finished my regular hours, the last thing I wanted to do was keep typing. I barely had enough functioning brain matter left to decided what to make for dinner. Sometimes I could scrawl a few hand-written pages in the evening.

I felt the talent I had been given was a "use it or lose it" kind of thing, and it was slowly slipping away. Sometimes I would try to write and nothing happened. Finally, I reached a crisis point. I was driving myself nuts. Something had to change and I was afraid it meant giving up writing. I knelt at my desk chair and prayed for something, anything, that would help me know what I was supposed to do. When I looked up, there was my little blue rock. But the impression that came into my mind was different this time. It was, "It's okay. Don't worry. You've still got your talent. It may take a while, but it will happen."

But that wasn't the end of it. Suddenly, wherever I went, I saw that color blue, or something close enough to it to remind me of the answer to my prayer. A highway sign, a box of Band-Aids, somebody's dress at church, a Christmas ornament, the tarp covering a pile of firewood, a sign at the grocery store. "It will happen."

The whole section from teal to blue to purple has always been my favorite part of the color spectrum, but now I have a special affinity for MY blue. I've even started collecting cobalt glassware and Blue Delft figurines.

So that's why, when I decided to do NaNoWriMo this year, I painted my fingernails with the closest match I could find to Kona Blue Metallic. "It may take a while, but it will happen."