Road Trip to NaNo: Flock with Writers of Different Feathers

NaNoWriMo is an international event, and the stories being written every year reflect our hundreds of participating regions. We’re taking a Road Trip to NaNo to hear from our amazing volunteers and writers all around the world. Today, Gloria, our Municipal Liaison in the USA :: Texas :: Corpus Christi region shares why it’s important to flock with writers:

Corpus Christi, Texas, is the “birdiest” city in the U.S. I know, it’s a very strange claim to fame, isn’t it? My hometown has more individual species of birds than any other city in the nation. Maybe it’s the warm waters along the Texas gulf coast that draw them here. Every autumn, the power lines, branches, and roof tops fill wing to wing with black birds.

I’ve lived here my whole life and I’ve never learned what species these black birds are. I just know that I’ve always loved their raucous din of chirping in the shopping centers. The seagulls, sandpipers, and hawks that stay here year round, soaring across rainbow sherbet sunsets to tease slow-draw photographers, will play host to all manner of hummingbirds and cardinals from up north.

Truthfully, I don’t know if I’ve got the specifics right. I’ve never learned which birds are the ones who migrate here in the autumn. I don’t know if they get here in November or December. This is a great shame to me as I consider myself an obsessive researcher…

Last Friday was our Downtown Artwalk and the folklore of our region’s Hispanic heritage was the theme. I was handing out flyers for NaNoWriMo as I strolled with my friends from the Texas A&M campus. At the age of 34, I had decided to leave my 10-year IT career for a Bachelor’s degree in English with the dream of being an editor.

I felt like a bit of an odd bird myself, dancing around to every band chirping their tunes on the corner. Several tents displayed gorgeous tableaus of moonlight on our local waters. Others had fanart from sci-fi shows, or depictions of Día de Los Muertos. Holistic healers sold their wares as tattooed rebels pushed baby strollers past the bluegrass band. The clash of voices was glorious to my ears. We packed ourselves wing to wing with every color of feather.

We were all there for the same reason. We all had a story to tell and our very own way of telling it. Corpus Christi is an unusual nexus where a person can run into that stranger they met on a trip to New Zealand, or that childhood friend they’d lost touch with. People come here. They just do. Maybe it’s the warm waters. Maybe it’s the university, or the port but they all come ready to tell their stories. What a great shame it is for me, an obsessive researcher and aspiring writer, that I’ve never learned their names and types, or heard every tale to be told right here in my own home.

This year, pay attention to the different voices around you. Challenge people to tell their stories; let them know that you want to hear what they have to say. Invite them to your NaNoWriMo write-ins, then listen closely through all the singing of voices and ideas that make up your region.

It wasn’t until I became Corpus Christi’s NaNoWriMo municipal liaison that I began to listen to these distinct voices. I read journal entries and poems, scripts and manuscripts from every genre. Romance and science fiction writers made a raucous din with western and mystery writers around our meeting table. Chirp chirp chirp! And I the gawky sandpiper have the honor to host my kin every year when the NaNo season draws us to the warm waters of the Gulf Coast.

Gloria was born and raised in Corpus Christi, Texas, the youngest of seven siblings. She returned to school to receive her degree in English after a 10-year IT career, and founded a local writing network, the South Texas Scribes. Her passion is coaxing the underrepresented language talents that are rife in the lives and experiences of the coastal bend.

Top photo by Flickr user TheBrit_2.