November Writing
My November writing — writing 1667 words every day for NaNoWriMo [National Novel Writing Month–for more information see my post: I Write] has begun. This is my fourteenth year. It’s magical to allow your words to flow without an inner editor stopping every few seconds to correct a comma or debate a word with your self. Just write the story. Get it out of the imagination.
In November of each year, that’s what I do. The goal is a story with all its flaws and errors simply flowing out of the imagination: a new world no one has ever seen, characters with struggles and a quest, a setting that changes with the moods, a story no one has heard or told before, and all in fifty thousand words in thirty days.
This Year’s Novel: Ending’s End
I’m usually a pantser. That means I start with a blank page on November 1st with no planning. That’s how I started this year. I have an image of girls being subdued from their possibilities and opportunities. I want that to end. And so the title, Ending’s End. It may change; after all, a pantser goes where the characters take them.
The story started with the celebration of a sixteen-year-old girl’s birthday celebration. But is it more than that? And why did armed men arrive at the door to talk to her? Her family was well respected and active members of the community, so why are they coming for her? Mention is made of “her Awakening:” what is that?
Follow the journey in excerpts and illustrations during this November. My husband says I must finish the novel, meaning, actually revise and edit it AFTER the November free write, which I never do, though I’ve always written 50,000 words.
Here’s the first four days.
Nov 1: The Leaving
Eldest daughters’ life journeys begin with a quest
Gazing down through the trees from Gran’s window, she announced, “They’re coming. I see the lights.”
Her mother hugged her one last time and guided her to the wooden chair by Gran’s bedside.
“Listen,” she wrapped her arms around her and squeezed, “I trust you can do this.”
Sheri Edwards November NaNoWriMo 2024 Ending’s End 1701 words today
Nov 2: Letting Go
She became then part of the silence, part of the small grove of aspen. She stood as still as possible and listened. She slowly looked for lights, for movement, for those who had passed before her.
She noted where one had fallen. She saw where hands had touched the fence at the trailhead.
She counted the tracks of two horses. She saw the tracks of a cougar. She saw the breath of a fox just before it scampered out of the woods across the meadow, pausing to look her way, then running back into his woods.
Sheri Edwards November NaNoWriMo 2024 Ending’s End 1,845 words this day
Nov 3: Detour
A breeze flowed downhill and yellow leaves tumbled down the hillside wrapping around her with the wind.
She paused, and looked upward, still forward, and noticed the grove of cottonwoods, waxy yellow leaves shining in the moonlight. Stepping in that direction, she noticed a granite wall — a real wall of squares of granite, with dirt covering them, as if they’d recently been exposed.
Closing her eyes, she searched the map she’d memorized, but there was no such landmark, but there was a patch of cottonwoods growing within a thick stand of pines. So she approached the wall and heard the soft rush of a flowing brook above her, and then she stumbled on a stone beneath a swirl of cottonwood leaves— and found granite steps.
Sheri Edwards November NaNoWriMo 2024 Ending’s End 2,502 words this day
Day 4 Retrievers
There must be more tracks. They can’t just stop,'”
She saw below her a dark storm, while she bathed in the warmth of early morning twilight.
One man pulled his wide-brimmed hat further down on his head as the piercing rain around them pounded the men. The man tightened his rain coat, pulling his collar up around his neck and grumbling, “Do you see more tracks?”
“There must be more. She can’t just disappear.”
A horse brayed and rose up when a lightning bolt struck a tree further in the pines on the path they’d just taken. The man leaned back, holding the reins and pulling the horse back down, raising his hand to his head, “Whoa, boy. Whoa.”
“There must be more tracks. They can’t just stop,” he yelled through storm. He grabbed the reins of the other man’s horse. “I’ll calm the horses. You’re a better tracker— look, damn it.”
Sheri Edwards November NaNoWriMo 2024 Ending’s End 1670 words this day
About NaNoWriMo
NaNoWriMo [National Novel Writing Month] –write at least 1667 words a day to reach 50,000 total words by November 30th — fifty thousand words of a novel.
My novels: Click for this blog’s NaNoWriMo posts and Click for AskWhatElse posts, and here– links to their Flickr albums:
Try It!
Get into the spirit of writing– 1,667 words a day is doable! Surely the art you’ve created has a few stories inspired by the art itself or the idea that started in the real world. It’s a powerful creative adventure. Take a look at how I got started: Let Them Write.
It’s not too late– sign up here: NaNoWriMo. Then find me: user ms.edwards
If you’ve got kids– there’s a place for them too Young Writers NaNoWriMo— with plenty of resources/ curriculum to guide you– for writers and for educators.
I wonder, if I draw a line... 