By Kelly Bridgewater
Well, I did it.
NaNoWriMo.
This was my second time actually trying it. Then I actually
won. The last time I did NaNoWriMo was in 2014, and I won. I wrote a suspense
novel then, but since then I have fallen in love with historical stories, so I
really want to write a historical suspense novel.
But on October 2015, my father died, and our family took a
weeklong vacation to Disney World over Thanksgiving, so I was a just a little
bit busy.
For the past two years, I have had a hard time writing
anything. I lost myself in books after books, writing reviews by the weeks. The
days, weeks, and months slipped by. Even the years flew by.
This year, I begged God to give me my desire of the heart
back. He gave me the desire to write for a reason, right. This has been my
dream since as far as I can imagine. I remember playing an imagination game in
my best friend's side yard, and I went home to write what we played that day.
In July, I prayed that prayer. Then in October, I prayed if
I should go do NaNoWriMo, which would hopefully bring my love of writing back.
I planned all October with a little bit of the plot planned
out, but not much. I felt ready to dive in.
November first came and I wrote 2,000 words. Then the second
came, again another 2,000 words. But the third came, and I couldn't write at
all. I felt defeated. Even begged God to not take this desire away from me. I
started this book before my father died, but I stopped and haven't touched
anything since.
But I kept moving forward. The week before Thanksgiving, I
felt like I was moving along at a nice clip and had written a number of words.
I got depressed a number of times, but I told myself I needed to do this.
I prayed a lot during November. I begged God for the story.
I walked a nice walkway in my bedroom on the carpet at the end of my bed. I
spent many moments discussing my story and my characters and deciding what they
needed to do next.
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| nanowrimo.org |
On Monday, November 27th at 4 p. m., I finished my NaNoWriMo
goal. I reached 50,388 words in 27 days. I felt great. I felt excited. I did
it! It was a joy I haven't felt in a long time.
Yes, there are many chapters that will be deleted. There are
many moments I need to revise and rewrite. I need to spend more time thinking
of my climactic moment and how my characters will reach them. I probably need
to think more about the subplot and do my research.
So no, this novel isn't publishable by a long shot, but I
have overcome the huge writer's block that has blanketed my entire existence
for the past two years.
I pray I continue forward and work on finishing this book,
with prayer, by June 2018.
How about you? What have you done to move past a writer's
block that blocked your creativity for more than a month?
