Besides
working on my entry for next weeks’ Fort Worth Weekly Xs & Os blog, I’ve
been slowly adapting my screenplay, The Bookmobile, into a novel for National Novel
Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). Now, that may be seen as cheating on NaNo, but I see
the screenplay as an outline only. It’s mostly complete, but I think this story
is better served as a novel.
I’ve
tried several times to work with the local NaNoWriMo groups, but they’re either
meeting too far away, or have more of a child-like spin on NaNo that I just don’t
fit into (or tend to write more in the Fantasy/Sci-Fi genre, whereas I’m more
in the Realistic realm). I host Write-Ins at the Boot Camp, but to become an
official “host,” I have to win at NaNo (meaning, in the 30 days of November, I
have to have written 50,000 words). I want to have a NaNo group for grown-ups,
writing about grown up things. It’s not that I don’t see the other groups as
writing for grown-ups, but…their style is just not my style. A quick Google
search of groups who aren’t going the playful route brought up nothing.
Maybe
NaNoWriMo as a concept is just not what I need to spur on my writing? It may
just be a gimmick for those who need that one time a year to get going. I want
to make writing a regular part of my life. Perhaps I just need to do my own
thing by creating my own brand of writing challenge? I do have a workshop I
teach at the beginning of every year, Write Fearlessly- Kick Off Your Writing
Life in 2016 (check it out on the Boot Camp scheduling page), so maybe that’s
how I’ll get the grown-up writing done. It’s something that will help people
transition their lives into writing daily.
Now, if
only I can get to writing on MY NOVEL daily…