But for now, as most of you know; NaNoWriMo is starting up again!! (yayyy crowd cheers). You don't know what NaNoWriMo is? No, this cannot be. Alright, NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month. It's when a bunch of people all around the nation (national, duh) get together in wonderful spirit in the wonderful month of November and write a novel. In a month. It's quite enjoyable and pretty fun if I might add myself.
I started doing NaNoWriMo four years ago when my mom had it as required school work for our homeschooling. She had discovered a site and the challenge of writing 50,000 words in a 31 days and thought it'd be a keen idea to show to her twelve and fourteen year olds, who wanted nothing more than to just quit school early and become hobos, to participate in this such event. At first, it was a serious and annoying chore, the simple IDEA of writing 1,667 words per day ON TOP of all that math and handwriting and science and English and History and--well, you get the picture.
Personally, it actually didn't take long before I started to warm up to idea and relish in the fact that I was given an excuse to skip school and freaking write all day. I loved writing, almost as much as I desire school nowadays, and hadn't been given the opportunity to spread my wings in that department yet. This suddenly became a dream come true, a lonely wish granted, a lovely melody put to paper--it was a set of inspiration! A dazzling new vision of my new main characters of antagonists and protagonists lining up at the starting line to rush off down the stream of that thousand such words a day. I suddenly couldn't wait to write, and my mother was extremely excited that I was taken with it so much.
My sister, Molly, on the other hand was still relentlessly stuck on the hobo idea. (Thankfully, not anymore, but she still refuses to do NaNoWriMo).
And so, it gave birth to my ridiculous, supreme, top, ultimate and uttermost failure of my 105,000 word long novel entitled Golden Sun, Silver Moon--(don't judge me, I was twelve). It is a reincarnation of the Never Ending Story, I tell ye; and quite stupid and random at that. Too many characters, too many subplots, too many bad guys who were really good guys and too many people dying and having the Daniel Jackson-Rory Williams syndrome. It was, and quite frankly still is a strong source of embarrassment in my elder age. I wish I still had the art I did for the book cover, but sadly I do not. It was about these two kids, Karen and Chris, who were sucked into another world through what was called an Air Rip in which was the side effects of the other world, Valv, dying. People there were blessed with super powers, depending on their hair and eye color, and all the races were in such chaos, the planet was tearing itself apart. It was actually an okay plot, but meh. Oh and Karen and Chris turned out to be incarnations of people who had saved Valv before and weilded twin swords of power called Golden Sun and Silver Moon. (See where the title comes in?)
Anyways, the next year was actually quite the improvement. Unfortunately though, Molly decided not to join my mother and I which made us both a bit disappoint, but we carried on. I ended up reaching the goal in ten days flat entitled The Academy. It was about this girl who was chosen as a student to a highly valued school owned by the government called the Academy, where gifted young men and women went to be taught a certain way, and later attain jobs in Ministry, Militia, and Congress. It's an honor to be chosen, and also a curse because you are taken from your family and rarely allowed to see them. Aerith Athena Erickson was chosen for this place, and she wasn't all that happy about it. As it turns out, the book unfolds in drama and politics and action and romance, and is actually in a series of three books total that I continued after NaNoWriMo. The Academy, the State Training, and the Republic. It's the Stacia Saga at the moment, and there's to be five books total. Haven't gotten around to the others. I really liked it, and still do happily, and I wish to someday have it fully edited and publish. :) I also, though, have lost the art for the book cover, which is probably all well and good, because it wasn't that special.
A couple of months later, I ended up reinventing it, with a slightly different storyline and better plot, but I will never forget turning out the lights in my room and settling down to continue the horrors of my main character Aiden. Nearing the end, I remember, it had something to do with walking off into the darkness, hand in hand with his new best friends and new purpose; a light at the end of the tunnel. Dedicated to a loved friend of mine, it was to show him that there is always hope somewhere.
Continuing on with that theme of hope, lights at the end of the tunnels, and rekindling lost dreams, I brainstormed this novel called Something to Light the Candles With. One night, my dad was fuming, searching around, saying this to himself. He was looking for a lighter to light the candles with (see where I'm going with this?) at my mother's grace; a ritual he always part-takes in every night. I mentioned it sounded like a book title, and then left it at that, not knowing how much it was going to inspire.
On October 1st, when my friends on Facebook (Shout out to Bethany Jean and Michele Archer :D) starting getting excited for NaNoWriMo, I scrambled to the computer and thought long and hard for a new novel to write. Recently, I had started up a novel already called Test of Faith (WIP), and I felt it was taking up most of my creative intuition. It wasn't long though, until I remembered the candles. The dark night, the small flicking flame shooting the rays of the heavens out into the cemetery among not the dead, but the sleeping. Being in a deep depression for the past summer, it made me think of hope once again. Believing in happier times. And how much I've lost physically, but will never forget in my heart. My mother, my friends, my family--still with me if I can simply remember them. Something to Light the Candles With is to be something about a young woman. She doesn't speak much, and with not many friends. Until she meets a boy, a bit younger than her but still, an old soul who teaches her friendships, people who have touched your heart, stay with you, forever.Ah, yes; NaNoWriMo has always held a very special place in my heart, and I believe it will continue that way for a long time. I hope you'll join me on this great adventure of exploring this new world of literary fiction (or is it really?) this month to come to then lighten up Thanksgiving with and welcome in Christmas times. It's always quite the quest to fulfill, but I believe--with your help, of course--it is within reach of acomplishment.
