NaNoWriMo and Joseph Campbell
#NaNoWriMo has got a lot in common with #JosephCampbell's hero quest. The first step of course is under the header of Separation or Departure - more specifically, The Call to Adventure. So why join in NaNoWriMo? I hadn't heard of it until last year when a student suggested a group of us do it. My Admin at the time had a wonderful story of having done thousands of words over a weekend to 'catch up' to the total needed to keep on track, and a fellow staff member had also done it before. They seemed committed to doing it again.
I agreed, knowing I could easily write the 1660 words per day, but forgetting I only did that on weekends, not after a 8-9 hour work day with a 2 hour commute. Having agreed to do it, and being Head of Program, I felt obliged to persevere - my Admin and colleague didn't persevere-- much to my dismay.
Of course, I could have 'refused the call' but I'd had a story in my head for a while and was looking for the 'right' time to write it. I had no 'supernatural aid' beyond the story in my head 'wanting to live'. Is this supernatural? Where stories come from, or whether we discover them, is a topic suited to another blog.
'Crossing the first threshold' was definitely agreeing to participate in front of colleagues and students, and as Head of Program, I didn't feel I could back out. The problem was/is, that although I'm a pantser, I do a lot of looping back to fix things as the story emerges. My wonderful student Mandy Kontos warned me off this is no uncertain terms. 'There simply isn't time,' she insisted and she was right. #NaNoWriMo is a marathon conducted as a sprint.
My 'belly of the whale' moment came when I woke from one of my many slumbers at my desk and realised this. To survive, to make my word count (which I was determined to do), I had to keep writing (crap) and fix later.
I agreed, knowing I could easily write the 1660 words per day, but forgetting I only did that on weekends, not after a 8-9 hour work day with a 2 hour commute. Having agreed to do it, and being Head of Program, I felt obliged to persevere - my Admin and colleague didn't persevere-- much to my dismay.
Of course, I could have 'refused the call' but I'd had a story in my head for a while and was looking for the 'right' time to write it. I had no 'supernatural aid' beyond the story in my head 'wanting to live'. Is this supernatural? Where stories come from, or whether we discover them, is a topic suited to another blog.
'Crossing the first threshold' was definitely agreeing to participate in front of colleagues and students, and as Head of Program, I didn't feel I could back out. The problem was/is, that although I'm a pantser, I do a lot of looping back to fix things as the story emerges. My wonderful student Mandy Kontos warned me off this is no uncertain terms. 'There simply isn't time,' she insisted and she was right. #NaNoWriMo is a marathon conducted as a sprint.
My 'belly of the whale' moment came when I woke from one of my many slumbers at my desk and realised this. To survive, to make my word count (which I was determined to do), I had to keep writing (crap) and fix later.
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