NaNoWriMo

So I have this friend Karena who is a writer.  She started a writing group and invited me because I write a little bit and I review books.  I told her about the one and only book idea I had when she asked if I wanted to be a writer.  She thought I should write it. So I did. I brought one scene of my book idea to writing group and everyone thought I should finish the book.  But I couldn’t.

I was scared of writing a novel.

I used to be a piano major in school and it was HARD.  I worked my butt off and eventually decided after two years that piano wasn’t for me.  I had learned enough in college to teach, which is what I loved doing, but I no longer loved piano like I used to.  The hard work had made my beloved hobby a chore.  I haven’t played the piano for fun in over 7 years.  I told myself it was because I didn’t love it anymore but I think the real reason was I let myself believe that I wasn’t good at playing the piano.

I love reading. I love this book review blog.  I love the short stories that I write.  What if my last hobby that I love dearly turns into a dreadful job that I hate, too? What will I have left after that?

It’s a real fear to me, but when I told that to my husband he said, “That’s the weirdest reason for not doing something I’ve ever heard.  How will you know if you like it if you don’t try it?”

Good question.  I thought I wouldn’t like book blogging. My sister talked me into blogging because she loves it.  I didn’t have anything to talk about besides books so I decided I would blog every day for 30 days just about books to see if I liked it.  Turns out I did since I’m still doing it 3 1/2 years later.  I should write every day for 30 days to see if I like it and hey what do you know but that’s what NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) is.  You write 1500 words a day and at the end of the month you will have a novel length thing of words.

I have officially signed up for NaNoWriMo.  My goal is to be creative, have fun, try to turn my internal editor off, get to know my brain a little bit, and write every single day.  I know that I could go through the tedious process of editing and revising but the big question mark for me is – will I like the creative side of writing?  I’m going to use everything I learned from Laini Taylor about brainstorming and finding a story cat.  My fingers are crossed that I end up loving this crazy hobby called writing.

I like challenges.  I like little progress bars. I like badges (OMG did you see the badges? I want them all!)  I like online community.  I think NaNoWriMo is going to be a blast since it is all of those things in one.

And if it turns out making up stuff isn’t my thing, there’s always book blogging. :)

P.S. I decided to start playing the piano again and guess what? It’s fun and I love it just as much as I ever did.

P.P.S. If you want to friend me on NaNoWriMo I’m “booksatruestory”

 Sponsor Me

As I mentioned above, I love getting badges and one of the badges is to raise money for the charity that runs NaNoWriMo.  If you would like to sponsor even a little bit, it helps run creative writing programs for kids.  You can deduct it from your taxes AND I promise to name a character after you :) (But only if you want to be a character)  Click here to donate or at the button below.

My Word Count Badge

If you want to see my progress of how many words I’ve written, I will have this badge in the sidebar that will update all month long.