Just call me Rip Van Winkle

So, dear readers, perhaps you are wondering what happened to the writer of this blog. Did she get consumed by a man-eating tiger while on a safari in India? Did she find El Dorado and promptly get kidnapped and put in some El Doradian dungeon? Did she fall into a sidewalk chalk picture with Mary Poppins? Did she get attacked by Twilight fangirls for declaring that Edward and Jacob were both ugly?

No, none of these valiant things occurred; at least, not in real life. Instead, she was writing a novel. Again.

Now, here is the lady herself:

Greetings, folks! It is I, Jess. I am alive and well. Like my announcer said in the paragraphs above, I have simply been writing a novel. You see, November is National Novel Writing Month, which is a challenge to write a 50,000-word novel within the thirty days. I participated in it last year (you can refer yourself back to my Backstory), and I felt compelled, naturally, to participate this year as well. The result at the end of four weeks? 51,720 words, 106 pages, of pure gold! And by gold, I mean… well, not gold.

NaNoWriMo was an interesting experience for me this year, on a number of levels. You see, last year, I had planned excessively for the novel I wrote. As in, I had already tried writing it multiple times in the years prior (before I knew about NaNoWriMo); and then, once I signed up for the retreat in Oregon, I basically spent August, September, and October making sure my outlines and character profiles were perfect. This resulted in me writing a despicably boring book, to me, because I knew everything that was going to happen, and all I had to do was write it out. No room left for the spontaneity of flying by the ‘pants of my seat’, going with wherever would be exciting to write.

This year, I concluded that it was a horribly bad idea to do that to myself again. I spent a total of maybe four or five days spread out over several weeks to come up with what I wanted in the novel, and basically left it at that. The only extra planning I did came in little spurts of ideas that I would quickly jot down in my notebook so I could move on with life.

But as I wrote I still felt like I had planned too much. I think this is because I felt like I had to stick with something; and that something was the little I had planned. I ended up beginning the novel with no inciting incident other than, “It was a dark and stormy night, so I decided to go on an adventure.” Wow, Jess. Epic storytelling abilities for the win.

What made it harder to write the novel was the fact that during three of NaNoWriMo’s four weeks, I was travelling the country and visiting friends. This, ladies and gentlemen, was not in the original NaNoWriMo plan; I made the decision to go a week before I peaced out of North Carolina. And this would have been fine, but for an introvert like me, it is extremely difficult to concentrate and be creative when there is bustle all around, and people you like being with are doing funny and distracting things… and, frankly, you would actually like to visit with them since that is what you came to do in the first place.

After the rough start of the first week, I was basically able to concentrate to some degree or another; and then I finally got into the flow of writing in the third week. This can be compared to running or swimming a long distance: the first couple of miles or first 500 yards are ridiculous and awful; and then you get in the flow, and you can just keep running or swimming forever, and it feels great. And, after spending so many days behind on my word count (and even coming down with a killer virus over Thanksgiving weekend), I finished a day early with almost an extra 2,000 words tacked on to the end.

That is certainly not to say it is The Great American Novel. It is more like The Great and Terrible Solid, Visual Form of Jessica’s Brain for the Month of November 2010. It is all over the place. It basically has no point. It’s dramatic, hilarious, irrelevant, rambling, improbable, nonsensical, and certainly Not Like It Was Supposed to Go. But you know what? It doesn’t matter. What matters is I DID IT.

This is my second time doing NaNoWriMo; technically, my third, since I also tried to do my own NaNoWriMo challenge in June. I did not make it to 50,000 words either of those times; in November, I made it to 47,000, and in June I made it to 43,000. So, this is the first time I have ever made it to 50,000 words in the required time. Needless to say, I feel extremely accomplished. I danced around the house for the next few days… and now, looking back, I want to dance again.

So, folks, that is what I have been up to in my absence! I hope you were even more productive than I.

Happy Winter, everyone!

Captivated piggy banks

Bristol

A deliciously dramatic sky...

Nashville

After San Francisco, I headed to my friend Joanna’s house in Virginia… but I stayed a night in Nashville at the Music City Hostel after flying in that evening.  They had a piano!!  Penny worked and lived at the hostel, and Mattia was a jolly Italian fellow on his way, incidentally, to California.  We had a wonderful time!

Autumn and the West

Joe of San Francisco

The Epic Joe, pictured above, was our tour guide through San Francisco.  It was my first time, and I had a delightful day in the city.  We all - that is, Rachel, Caitlin, Joe, Jon, and I - dressed “like British people” and talked in British accents all day.  ’Twas fantastique!  

A Tip off the Natalie Goldberg Iceberg

It was a most tragic thing that I should second guess my life's purpose the day before I left.  I therefore left behind the physical manifestations of my actual life's purpose and took with me some other things that I sort of like, but aren't ever worth taking when traveling around one's country.

The day before yesterday I shipped those things back home; but I figured it was pointless to ask my family to ship to me, c/o my good friend Rachel, my books which I was originally going to take with me: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy books, On the Road by Jack Kerouac, and most importantly, Wild Mind by Natalie Goldberg.

These books were  meant to inspire my fiction and freewriting which I was planning on accomplishing during the month of November, 20 days of which I will be spending in the land known as "not in the comforts of my home where all of my writing resources always are no matter what."  But, in case you missed the part where I thought for a bit that I would do something a little less pleasant but a little more useful than NaNoWriMo... I don't have them with me, because it seemed silly.

And we all know the saddest part is that I am actually traveling with absolutely NO Natalie Goldberg along to inspire me.  I have to live off of my own whims.  I don't even know how I've made it this far, or how I have 8,884 words in my NaNoWriMo novel right now.  There must be some miracle at work here.  And I can't even find anything of hers online.  She needs a blog.  Just for me, a desperate woman stranded with nothing but a laptop and her own notebook full of mediocre writings.

For those of you who don't know, Natalie Goldberg is basically the coolest person alive.  She writes, and then she writes about writing.  She's a Zen Buddhist whose main focus is freewriting.  Freewriting, which Google Chrome says is not a real word, is when you just start writing and you write about whatever comes out.  Some friends thank me for slightly more illustratively renaming this process "word vomit."  I should probably patent that term, but since I am poor, I'll just hope that some kind people give me credit if they use the term themselves, and I'll leave everyone to go about their normal lives and not worry about me showing up at their back screen doors with a pick axe and a rather resentful looking snarl across my lips, distant eyes spelling out an urge to mutilate anyone who has ever done me wrong.  Don't worry.  Those same friends who praise my "word vomit" creation?  Yeah, those friends.  They will also inform you that I am much too nice to do anything even remotely close to even looking menacing and murderous.  So forget about it.... sigh...

In my desperation, I was able to find some of her quotes online... one of which just put me to shame: “Life is not orderly. No matter how we try to make life so, right in the middle of it we die, lose a leg, fall in love, drop a jar of applesauce.”  Okay, fine, Natalie Goldberg.  I get it.  Life can't be perfect and I should keep writing anyway, whether you are here to help me or not!

But NOW I am all inspired by all these Natalie Goldberg quotes about writing.

“When you are present, the world is truly alive.”

“Sometimes when you think you are done, it is just the edge of beginning. Probably that's why we decide we're done. It's getting too scary. We are touching down onto something real. It is beyond the point when you think you are done that often something strong comes out.”

“Talk when you talk, walk when you walk, and die when you die.”

“First thoughts have tremendous energy. The internal censor usually squelches them, so we live in the realm of second and third thoughts, thoughts on thought, twice and three times removed from the direct connection of the first fresh flash.”

“There is no security, no assurance that because we wrote something good two months ago, we will do it again. Actually, every time we begin, we wonder how we ever did it before.”

Quite so, Natalie Goldberg... quite so.  Please, keep being amazing - and I hope to meet you one day very soon!