NaNoWriMo

Hello Everyone:

It's that time of the year again. The time of year when the leaves start changing colors, the wind gets a little bit chillier, and everyone starts craving pumpkin flavored drinks. That's right! It's fall!! I love fall, but that's not what I want to talk about in my blog. I haven't had a blog in a while and the last one was a big rant and kind of depressing, so I thought I would talk about something that would be a little bit more interesting for those who do (or do not) actually read my blog.

The subject I am interested in blogging about is something I'm actually planning on talking about for the next few blogs. The reason behind that is because it is about something that happens each year in this paticular month. It's November, and Nobember is known for having many different "holidays" going on during the course of its 30 days. There's Thanksgiving, the Holiday that my paticular country (USA) celebrates on the last Thursday of the month. Many people celebrate what's called No Shave November where males, and sometimes women, go the entire month without shaving any hair (that includes on all places that hair may appear on the body). One of these traditions is what I want to blog about throughout the next few blogs but it's not one of the ones mentions above. The tradition I want to talk about is mainly known amoung writers. It's called NaNoWriMo.

What is NaNoWriMo? NaNoWriMo, also known as National Novel Writing Month, was started back in 1999 in the month of July. Based off of the internet, NaNoWriMo encourages a creative writing project to create a new novel of 50,000 words during the month of November. That's the just of what NaNoWriMo and I mentioned I wanted this to be an interesting blog, and history lessons aren't interesting...well, not to me, anyways. For more information about NaNoWriMo, visit the wikipedia link below.

I'm not actually participating in writing a 50,000 word novel, but I thought that with NaNoWriMo going on, it would be a great time to start back up on writing. I haven't done much writing since I left college and most writing I have done have either been small blogs (mainly rants or random topics), incomplete blogs never finished/posted, and short poems not shared anywhere. I wanted to start small which is why I decided not to do the actual novel but came up with my own little idea. I decided that Mon-Thur I would find/create writing prompts and write them throughout my work shift (I work at a call center and am working on writing between incoming calls) and then on Friday I am going to write a blog including the writing prompts and what I managed to complete. Most of the blogs aren't going to be this long (I won't have to re-explain myself) and will just include the prompt and what I was able to complete and what days I did them (day and date included). I hope that by doing this I can encourage others to write more (you're free to use the prompts I do!) and to help build my writing.

Week 1 (Nov. 4th-Nov. 7th) (Note: I missed the Friday before and am not doing weekends. I also missed the first Monday)

Prompt: A young woman sits crying on the bench. A man approaches, and almost decides to walk away. He doesn’t. He hands the woman a tissue and asks her why she’s crying. What does she tell him? Tuesday: 11/05/13

ACT 1: SCENE I.
(Curtain opens, a middle aged woman sits in the middle of the stage on a wooden bench. Her head hangs down, her hair hiding her face, while her shoulders heave up and down as she softly weaps. The sound of tapping echoes throughout the theater. An eldery man with a cane enters stage left. He walks past the woman on the bench and stops a few feet away. Hesitating, as if to continue on, the man looks back at the woman before turning around and taking a seat next to her)

Man: Sure is a nice day. (pause) Shame you're spending it looking at the fealthy ground. (pause)

Woman: (continues to weap)

Man: (sighs, pulling out a handkerchief offering it to the woman) Here.

Woman: (accepts handkerchief, blowing her nose and wiping her eyes) Thanks. (Offers handkerchief back)

Man: (raises hand) No, keep it. You need it more than me.

Woman: (Nods and folds handkerchief in lap) Thank you again. God only know how horrible I must look. Sitting here, bawling my eyes out on a bench for everyone to see.

Man: How about spilling it out of your mouth to one old man instead of out of your eyes for a whole crowd?

Woman: (smiles) It wouldn't be anything you would want to listen to.

Man: I have three daughters. I've spent most of my lift listening to their woes. I think I can handle listening to the woes of one more.

Woman: It's more of a worry than a woe. I woke up this morning and realized my life had stopped moving forward. All of my friends are either moving up in their desired career path or getting married and starting a family. While I'm sitting here having done the same job for three years with no possibility of a family in the future. There's nothing for me to look forward to in the future, or even throughout the day.

Man: For a lady so well defined it is hard to believe that you have nothing to look forward to within a 12 hour period. (leans on cane as he speaks) What could cause you to feel this way?

Woman: (leans back and looks up at the sky then sighs) Everything.

Man: What is "everything" to you?

Woman: Isn't everything the same for everyone?

Man: Everything to me is my walking cane (taps cane), my wonderful wife of fifty years, our three beautiful daughters and one son, and our grandchildren. Is that your everything?

Woman: (sits stuned for a minute) I never considered everything as being something important to yourself. I just thought that everything was what effects your life.

Man: Everything is what effects your life, but not in the way you seem to believe that your life is being effected by it. Think about your view of everything right now. What is it?

Woman: (sits silently) ... (starts to speak then stops. Hangs her head and sighs) Everything...is nothing.
--

Prompt: Ten items, one place. What are the items and where are they located. List the items but only discribe the place (don't mention where it is). Wednesday: 11/06/13

Items:

ONE table
TWO candles
THREE wine glasses
Four napkins folded
Five invitations
SIX colors
SEVEN precious stones
EIGHT
NINE ribbons
TEN statues

(I didn't get around to figuring out an eighth number or describing the place, so if you want, feel free to leave your opinion of what you believe the place to be)

--

Prompt: Write a short story with at least one of the following sentences appearing in it somewhere:
...and that is how it's going to be from now on.
It was on a cold, rainy day...
The last thing I/he/she could remember was...
I scratched my dog behind his ear as I walked out the front gate.
...then I/he/she had that dream.
Thursday: 11/07/2013

The last thing he could remember was the weight. The pressure upon his chest felt like he had been pushed under water. He was breathless while the cause for the pressure on his chest breathed heavely in his ear. The breath smelt moldy and of raw meat as it hanged around his neck. He swallowed, preparing for what was going to happen next. It felt rough and slippery as the wet tongue slid up and down his cheak. He laughed as he rubbed the great dane behind the ears. The collar around the dog's neck jingled back and forth, the shine of the word "Buddy" catching his eye. The next thing, his world had gone black.

There you go for week 1 of NaNoWriMo! I hope I helped inspire the writer inside someone!

With All My Love <3

S.L.u.G.