Off the Cuff / My Other Journal

NaNo...and then again!

39,628 words. I am hurrying, and not only because I want to finish the novel, or the resemblance of a novel , before Thanksgiving. It is just that the story or the characters have taken over. Funny, how some things from my own life seeped in, plus the really weird stuff I came up with due to the quirky main character, even if she is a tragic one.

It always works to choose a primary character with a personality disorder. People with personality disorders or those having borderline personalities always act, get into things, and stir muck.

We went to BJ's yesterday. I bought a bunch of fine-point Sharpie pens. When we came home, I didn't like them. They make a sh-sh-sh- sh sound as I write and distract me. I am not writing the novel with pen and paper, but I write other things all the time or take notes on what I'll write later.

So the Sharpie pens are in hubby's possession now, and I'll have to get a new set. I should have stuck to Pilot-G or Uni-ball Signo to start with. My husband laughs at me because I'm so picky with pens, and I don't give a hoot about other things.

Last week sometime, a woman asked me what I was writing in the waiting room, while I waited for my husband. I first said grocery list, then noticing her looking at my paper, I said I was scribbling some notes for a letter to be written. I was actually writing some kind of a rough draft/outline for a newsletter. Since nosy people find me all the time, I write a few lines, then start reading a book, or if the waiting room is large enough, I go sit away from everyone.

I really like NaNo. I like the obsession and the intensified attention it forces the writer to give to the work. I could live like this forever, but I can't because of real life and because I do want to do other things, too; even if other things have suffered only a little at this time.


*Edited to add: I love the photo in Short Shots for November. I'd write for it, if it weren't for Nano. It would've been fun. *sigh*