As usual, I’m doing Nanowrimo again this year. When am I not doing Nanowrimo is the real question. I also try and participate in Camp every year, and I think my family is starting to think that Nano never ends. November is the best one, though. It’s the one where thousands of people are all online. It’s the one where you can feel like you are struggling to craft a terrible 50,000 words beside hundreds of thousands of people who are also crafting terrible 50,000 word drafts. There are thrilling pep talks just when you’re feeling down. There are message boards full of people who are willing to commiserate both with victory and with failure. There are stickers.
I’ve put my current novel on hold to write something new. I’m probably insane, but I was at a good stopping point. Putting that novel aside for a month will give me excellent perspective on it, right? No? Well, I’m telling myself that it will anyway. I’ll go back to it in December and give this one a break, and then I can take turns editing.
I read more than one book at once, I can edit two at once, right? Still no?
Anyway, I’m doing very well so far. I’m a whole day ahead, have had a couple of 3000 word days during the week (!!! <-this is a miracle), and am ready to blow the bell curve this weekend. I’m also realizing that the more you write, the easier it becomes to write. You know, if you can make yourself sit down at the computer in the first place and resist the siren’s call of the internet.
This novel is set in 1952, so I’ve downloaded a playlist on Spotify that features all the top 40 hits from 1950-1952. Some days I’m not sure how anyone back then could listen to the radio for long, the songs are so saccharine. Other days, I find myself wanting to jitterbug to “Rag Mop.” Today I got fed up with the fifties and decided to revert to the 1920s. I discovered Vince Giordano and the Nighthawks on NPR last night. I’ve been swinging in a clarinet-trill world all afternoon. Yes, I know they aren’t technically from the 1920s, but they play music from that era and that is enough for me.
Okay, enough stalling. If you’ll excuse me, I have to get Ruby to the Grand Canyon so she can find out shocking secrets about her mother…
Casey E. Hamilton 