National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo, is a month long writing challenge where one writes a 50k word novel (and maybe even more) during November. Yes, there are people out there who whip out their computer/notebook/stone tablet, fire up the coffee maker, and tell themselves: “I love to torture myself in cruel and unusual ways.” For the past nine years, I have been one of those people and have been loving it. It only gets better with time.
November is still about a month and a half away, but I have already started planning because 1. my idea is hot and fresh like a Krispy Kreme donut, and 2. my idea will no longer be hot and fresh if it sits for too long, like a gas station donut that no one wants. It’s already happened a few times before and it can feel so frustrating. The idea was perfectly fine before, what changed?! Who can even know? Ideas are weird like that.
But like any good idea, this one morphed from a simple scene. It started with something like a dream, that deep blue hour around 3 AM. Where you’re walking through the hallway half blind and running your hand against the wall because you can’t trust muscle memory. If you squint you can see a hint of dim moonlight and it makes the shadows seem darker. Everyone else is asleep except for you.
This felt like a good starting point, so I gave it water and sunlight and let it grow. That same spooky feeling could be exacerbated if people had recently died in their house, leaving their ghosts behind. And real life is never so simple or kind to have death as the ultimate end. The ones left living still have their worries and problems and hopes and dreams, just with mourning mixed in.
But you have to move on, right? You can’t mourn forever. You have to keep pursuing your dreams, even as crazy exes and debt collectors and law enforcement pursue you. You can’t let the dead drag you away from the waking world. But maybe that’s easier said than done.
In any case, I’m excited to see how my characters will deal with all this! I am still fleshing out this idea but it is already getting nice and meaty. They are in for a wild ride. This is going to be a good November!
Eunice Wang 