Ever since I was a little girl, I've been fascinated by the art of storytelling. I was obsessed with books and would burn through the stacks my mother gave me with a quickness. With every book that I read though, I noticed a pattern in my response to the books. No matter how in love with a story I was, I would always find something I wanted to change. And it was usually the endings. I have an issue with the endings of books. Any time someone asks me for a book review, I give them the best one that I can all while thinking to myself, "But the ending..".
For years I would try my hand at writing my own stories, inspired by my favorite books. Hunched over my father's old military typewriter, I would pour my little heart and soul into these stories that were bouncing around in my brain. The tick-tick-ticking sound of the typewriter keys singing their siren song for me to just keep writing. And then another pattern appeared. As much as I wanted to change the endings of my favorite stories, I couldn't seem to write my own endings. I could write and write and write and then write some more but I couldn't seem to end whatever I was writing. I finally got so frustrated with myself that I just gave up writing. When that old, worn out typewriter finally ran out of ink, I put it back in my dad's office and just walked out. I wouldn't pick up a pen for several years.
Those quiet years of what I like to call my "writing depression" are now over. I'm in a completely different place in my life and I have an amazing support system in place who encourages me daily to get back into writing. NaNoWriMo is my starting point. I was terrified of taking something like this on at first but after only five days I already have amassed nearly 30k words! And the best part is that I know my ending. I knew the ending of this story before I knew anything else. Even if I get to the very end of this story and it doesn't come out exactly like it has been sitting in my head, I still know how it generally plays out. And that excites the hell out of me!
Are you taking part in NaNoWriMo? What are you area problems in your writing?
