Day 1: NaNoWriMo {Beth Troy Style}
Why do I blog?
Because I’m a writer. But there’s a lot of stuff to write.
Because I want to make my stuff “known.” But 1500+ blogs are posted every minute. It’s a saturated market.
Because I have all the time in the world. Someday I’ll blog about my 27-hour day. Promise.
Because I love putting my name on stuff. Second only to putting my picture everywhere.
No, I blog because I love to write. For years I kept the writing to myself. My writing wasn’t “real” because I wasn’t a “real” writer. Those words weren’t particularly helpful. In the past few years, I’ve learned to speak some others, and I’d like to share them to encourage you if you’re disqualifying yourself from a dream. That’s why I blog.
November is NaNoWriMo – National Novel Writing Month! It’s the Internet being used for something good by encouraging writers to draft a 50,000 word manuscript between November 1-30. Last year, 200,000 people wrote 2.8 billion words.
This many people writing this many words is plum amazing. I want to spread eagle into this mosh pit, but I can’t. Even with my 27-hour days, it’s not the time. I’d like to delete that last sentence and replace it with another, but that wouldn’t change the truth of the thing [insert dramatic sigh and duck lips].
Do you know what else is true?
Novels aren’t the only stories.
Every time someone asks about our day, we respond with a story. Our social media feeds = stories. Resumes and cover letters are the stories of our work, and pitches are the stories of our offering. Christmas cards are the stories of our year (and journal entries are the stories of what really went down). Everywhere we go we tell stories – a range of fiction to non- depending on the context, the audience, and the type of day we’re having. I woke up at 5AM with one kid puking in his bed and another peeing his pants. The third was probably streaking in the street, but how was I to know because I was too busy hosing down the dog in the pitch black of the backyard because she’d messed her crate again. What was your question? Oh, you want to know how I’m doing. Well I’m just going to be honest here and tell you …
That’s the start of a great story, and that’s what I want to celebrate on the blog this month: The Stories We Tell [Even If You Weren’t Aware You Were Telling Them Until the Last Paragraph]. Why not tell them well? Tell them true? Tell them as only you can tell them?
I’m hoping to hit it all in this NaNoWriMo 2017. I want to post a little something everyday. I have grand plans to bring on some guest bloggers and do some interviews. Perhaps I’ll host a give-away or two. Of course there’s the chance that none of this will work out. Check back in once in awhile anyway. There may be some writing geekery to help out your sentences. Maybe the day’s post will hold a trick to get you started or at least a good laugh. But I hope all of it (if there’s any of it) will encourage you to tell your story … whatever that may be.
Because you can. Because I did, and I’m working with the same ingredients as you (I was just joking about that 27-hour day). 2.8 billion words makes for a lot of stories, but what about yours? Only you can tell that.
