Feeding the hunger...

This happens every time I start to prepare for writing a novel. The hunger, the thirst for knowledge is incredible. I feel myself always reaching out for more. The more I learn, the more I want to learn.

When I am working on an outline, researching for backgrounds and characters I find myself getting lost in time as I search for more details to make it so real I can live it. If I can taste it, smell it and feel it, I know I can write it. That just fuels the fire even more until it cannot be extinguished, except by the actual writing of it.

In that regard I have to say that I am glad the next challenge I will face regarding my writing will start in November - the National Novel Writing Month or NaNoWriMo. That gives me enough time to do the preparation that I want to do, without giving me too much time to get too antsy and lose my creative excitement for this new project.

While I have written 5 novels already, they were for a different contest - the 3 Day Novel contest. Given there are only 3 days to write, obviously there are only so many words that are able to be written. In such a short period of time, I have found that for me, it is impossible to get into as much depth with each of my characters, as I would like to explore, so having a month to do so - well I'm pretty excited. Please don't read that as me not liking the contest because I do - and I have already committed to doing it again next year. It is not something I cannot see myself doing for many years to come.

That said, I feel that this new contest will help me stretch my wings to expand characters and story lines in ways that I have never done before. The "expectation" or "requirement" to meet for the month is 50,000 words and for me personally, I am going to extend that as far beyond as I am able to.

If I can write 38,000+ words in 3 days I feel a certain amount of confidence in reaching the 50,000 mark in 30 days. I have jumped into a group that has a minimum goal of 100,000 words but obviously would like to greatly exceed that. I would love to reach some of the 200,000 and 400,000 words that I have seen some people write but given this is my first challenge of this kind, I am not sure what is realistic for me personally, but I'm pretty darn excited to get started and find out for myself!


Perhaps a funny parting thought - I never thought I actually knew what passion was. I don't mean the chemistry/love/partner kind, I mean for life and knowing my place within it, or if I was doing what makes me happy.

I always had a secret envy of people that I could obviously see living their passion, the ones that knew what they wanted to be and do before they left the womb, or so it would seem. Not envy in a bad way, just more a wish or deep desire to feel that same feeling. To know I was doing something I loved. I had always imagined it would be something I would find myself immersed in for hours without noting the passage of time. To me, that was a recognizable sign.

To my greatest pleasure I find myself in that place now. I know it didn't happen by accident and that I have been creating this life each and every day - with every thought and action. Now that it is here I am overwhelmed and humbled. Deeply humbled and so very grateful.