Friday, November 26, 2021

Did I Cheat?

November is NaNoWriMo – National Novel Writing Month. The idea is to jump start a novel by writing 50,000 words in a single month. That’s a load of words!

I cheated. Well, I didn’t actually sign up, so maybe I can’t really be accused of cheating. But still… 

I reached the 50,000-word goal earlier this week. But they weren’t all “new” words. And I’m not working on a novel. 

I began a pandemic diary early last year – a desktop file where I wrote to untangle the insanity of 2020: from Trump to COVID, social justice to global warming, unemployment to homelessness. And on a personal level, my unplanned retirement and the birth of my grandson.

In late October 2020 when my daughter’s family leave ended, I began caring for my grandson a few days each week, and an odd thing happened. I began addressing my daily journal entries to my grandson. I began calling the file Pandemic Baby. I began thinking of it as a new memoir project.

A year of letters to Jack accumulated by the time NaNoWriMo 2021 rolled around. It seemed the perfect challenge: Could I shape these ramblings into a draft memoir? To answer that question, I cheated. I began cutting and pasting, rewriting and, yes, writing some “new” words as well. The manuscript is far from a finished first draft, but it’s a start. The challenge got me this far.

What about you? Do you have a memoir you’ve been wanting to get on the page? Perhaps for publication or perhaps for family? Do you need a challenge to get you started or instruction to keep you going?

I’m excited to be teaching a one-day memoir class on March 14, 2022 at Hugo House in Seattle. Perhaps that’s the challenge you need to breathe life into your project. If so, I look forward to seeing you in class. 

Registration opens soon. CLICK HERE for course description and registration information.

4 comments:

Pamela said...

So cool, Arleen. Let's hear it for such forms of cheating.

arleen said...

Thanks for reading and for commenting, Pamela. Yes, I'm all in favor of cheating if it helps get the words on the page and organized into something worth sharing!

Unknown said...

Wonderful idea, Arleen! I look forward to reading it. Hope there is another novel sometime too. Wish I could sign up for your class but since I live in the Midwest...

arleen said...

Thank you for reading and commenting, Unknown! I considered offering the course on Zoom, but opted for the in-person experience. Perhaps it was a poor call for folks like yourself who are not in the Seattle area or for those who simply don't want to drive and park in the city. Hopefully I'll have the opportunity to reconsider this with future course offerings.