With one week before NaNoWriMo begins and my idea still not quite pinned down I remain cool as a cucumber (which, as has been established, terrify cats for some reason). I’ve been here before and in my six previous attempts I never failed due to lack of idea.
I am starting to see vague outlines of something I might enjoy tackling in November. If nothing further materializes before next Sunday I will probably curl up in a ball, revive an old idea or in complete desperation use some sort of writing prompt, possibly even one of my own.
In the meantime, today I went to my first local NaNo event, a kick-off at Moose’s Pub in downtown Vancouver. After walking past it a thousand times I finally took the stairs down and went inside.
I came away with a snazzy Vancouver NaNo mug, a pin and four new writing buddies (the people sitting at the table with me). We chatted about writing, as one might expect, and it was interesting given the different genres we write in (horror, fantasy, science fiction and combinations thereof) and the age range, which probably spanned a good forty years. One guy, who said he writes non-fiction and who had not yet committed to NaNo–and who left early–may have accidentally stumbled upon the event, for all I know. Maybe he’s a Moose regular. It was slightly weird.
The rest of us enjoyed our food and drink and shared some of the usual frustrations and triumphs–the latter probably best highlighted by one of the participants actually having his 2009 NaNo novel published this year.
In all, it was an enjoyable outing and nice to meet others who share this zany hobby of mine. I plan on going to at least some of the write-ins during the month, too.
Now I just need to commit to that pesky and elusive idea.
