Despite everything that has happened in 2020, some things don’t change. Babies are born, Starbucks pumps out venti frappucinos by the barrel, and I participate in National Novel Writing Month. NaNoWriMo happens every November, and challenges writers to produce a 50,000 word novel within 30 days. Of course these are unpolished drafts, often unfinished too. But it’s a good starting point.
This will be my 10th year doing NaNoWriMo and it feels a little wild. How did I even get this far?! Not just with NaNoWriMo, but in general?? It seems just yesterday that I was living in my parent’s home, occasionally mowing the lawn and daydreaming about my future adult life. Now that I’m here, I can’t say it’s what I expected – in fact, it’s richer and fuller than I ever could have known. Minus the whole pandemic thing, but you know, at this point that’s completely out of our control. The only thing we can control is our reaction to it, and my reaction is to buckle down and pump out a new novel.
My NaNo novel last year was probably one of my favorite novels I’ve written. It is my precious child, my beloved babe, and also the monstrosity that left me wracking my brain for months on end, wondering how I was ever going to edit this chaotic story. When I was planning it, I wanted to create a setting that could exist in any middle class home, as average as anything; and then add elements of the bizarre. Just a few things, here and there, until the situation warped into something beyond saving.
I can’t lie, it was hard to execute but pretty fun to write. So this year, I want to try something similar. The story will start with an event that could happen to anyone – the death of a parent. It’s terrible, but it’s life. And while our protagonist is still grieving, what wrenches could life throw her way? Anything would be possible. And how she reacts to these curveballs will surely show what kind of person she is.
I still have a lot of planning work to do but I have high hopes for this story! After all, the number 10 is special. It has two whole digits, and everything. Joking aside, writing has always been my favorite way of creative expression, and I think it will be good to brush off my typing fingers once again this November.
Eunice Wang 