Back to the Day Job

I got a job today.

Unfortunately it wasn't a writing job. I haven't been offered a contract (lucrative or otherwise) to sit down and arrange words on a page to form ideas or a story.

Nope.

I got a call late in the day for a job at the Census Bureau.

And you know what? I'm grateful.

I really am.

It's not a job I'm dying to have; certainly not something I aspired to in my younger days.

BUT ... the wolf has been at the door of my family's home for awhile now.

And this job will remove the wolf.

And in so doing, it may help free up some of those synapses I've been using to wonder how I'm going to pay the bills (I'm never more creative, heaven help me, than when I'm figuring out how to pay the bills).

Wonder what my mind would conjure up ... if I had less concern about those blasted bills?

If those bills were -- gasp! -- removed?

How many stories, how many characters, how many situations that now do not flow through my fingers -- perhaps because of more immediately pressing matters -- would spring to life if I had some of the pressure lifted off me?

And in the process, I found out that I MYSELF could be the one to take the pressure off?

Well ... that would be nice.

And it would make me proud to know that I did it myself.

Yeah.

Tomorrow I'm working ... as a poll manager at our local precinct(s) here in Mount Pleasant. In fact, I'm running 3 precincts -- getting up at 5 a.m. and probably not back home until 10. And I earn a small check for doing it, and I'm proud that I'll be helping my family AND doing my civic duty.

And in the process, bringing in enough to provide a few Christmas presents.

My writing hasn't been doing too much of that for me lately. A book I labored over for literally years brings in, four times a year, a check that's just about large enough to pay for one lunch.

So for now, even though I'm -- yes! -- in the middle of Nanowrimo (with a pitiful 1000 words to my credit after 3 full days), I'm looking forward to training for my new job next week. To being out of my house for 10 hours every day -- maybe more, with commuting time. To meeting new people. To doing something I probably wouldn't have chosen to do.

And I am truly grateful. From such mundane beginnings can great stories grow.

Coming to Grips with Nanowrimo

It's that time of year again -- mid- to the end of October, when lunatic writers everywhere start to gear up for National Novel Writing Month (Nanowrimo to those in the know). Nanowrimo is the ultimate writers' marathon -- the rush to write 50,000 words of an original novel in -- gasp! -- THIRTY DAYS.

Do they have to be good? Hell, no. Getting them all in the right language is considered more than good enough.

But do they have to be 50,000? To win Nano, yes. (Winning means uploading your file with 50,000+ words in it -- Nano's own official counter counts the words and certifies you as a winner.)

What do winners get? Forget a Rolls Royce. Or an agent panting to represent you. Hell, forget even garnering respect. You get a few little downloadable goodies from the Nano website -- www.nanowrimo.org -- and a really good feeling.

And you know what? For most of us, that's a perfectly reasonable exchange.

Because just to know you're CAPABLE of putting 50,000 words -- of any length -- on paper in 30 days is a HUGE accomplishment. That's roughly 1,700 words per day -- for 30 solid days.

Truth is, even LOSING Nano is an accomplishment. Ending with 40,000 words -- or 30,000 -- even 500 after a solid month of trying -- is still more words than you had in October, isn't it? And it proves you can really knock it out with the best of them, when you want to. It puts you seven leagues ahead of writer wannabes who whine about how hard it is and do absolutely nothing to accomplish it.

Last year, my 12-year-old son tried Nano for the first time, and wrote 3,000 words total. (He lost interest fairly early on, or I'll bet the word count would have been a lot higher.) But when I read over his pages, I was amazed: This was good writing, really good, thoughtful writing. Better than anything he'd written for a school assignment.

Doing Nano did wonders for his confidence and self-esteem. I'm thrilled that he wants to do it again this year. And I told him so, both last November and several times since: I was so proud of what he did, especially in taking on such a challenge.

I've done Nano 3 times -- 2005, 2006, 2007. Each time I crossed the finish line with 50,000 + words. Each time I had a piece I was justifiably proud of -- something that hadn't existed before the mad rush of November, except in my mind, and that once captured in black and white, proved I had actually internalized a few things about the craft of writing, over the years.

Better yet -- Nano is a great time to knock out something I've been procrastinating about. It's the no-excuse, no-time-for-looking-back time of year when all that matters is the exhilarating rush of pushing those computer keys as fast as possible. Who cares if you write "prolific" when you mean "profligate"? Nobody!

It's just getting it down that matters.

For most of us, that's where we lose it as writers. Getting it down on the page is where we fail.

Nanowrimo takes that issue away from you, even as it provides you a global support community of other writers all pumping out their own less-than-masterpieces. Just putting it down, good or bad, is what counts.

Oh, and the words, of course. The words count, big-time. (I never use the word count feature of MS Word as much at any other time of the year.)

Try Nanowrimo, if you want the ultimate writers' rush (I swear, it's even better than winning a literary contest or selling a book.) Do it fast; do it dirty; get it done and be proud.

Yep -- I'm ready for sweet November.