The Writer In Me

Recently at work I've been doing a lot of writing (for an engineer). And I realized...I'd forgotten how much I like to write. I like sitting down with a pen and a piece of paper, and organizing my thoughts, and putting what I want to say in order, and thinking about how to transition from one point to the next. I like crafting paragraphs, closing my eyes and listening to the rhythmic tapping of my fingers on computer keys, feeling the flow of thoughts pass onto the screen. I like searching for a particular word to express what I want to communicate.

It just suddenly hit me. I've been away from writing (serious writing) for so long, and it was like a little aspect of myself popped up and went, "Oh hey, remember me? We used to have such fun together!"

In that vein, I'm hoping to participate in NaNoWriMo this year; I've never written anything novel-length before, so I expect it will be quite a challenge. Usually I start strong with a story, but then peter out and end it quickly. So I figured I should spend a year planning everything and making detailed notes. Then, when November comes, I can just write flat-out. I was getting a little nervous, because it's nearly the end of December and I still had no idea what to write about. I wanted to just get the seed of an idea by the end of the year; then I'd spend the rest of the time before November fleshing things out and creating a plot and characters and setting. I want to have a lot of notes and a detailed outline so that I know I won't lose steam on the plot.

And finally (cliche alert) it came to me in a dream.

No, I'm not going to say what the idea is. I want to flesh it out and determine a direction for the plot. But I'm certainly hoping that, come November, I'll be able to turn it into a novel.

Stay tuned...