Volume VI, Issue 44 October 30, 2017 Word of the Week: November Dear ,
Maybe you've heard of NaNoWriMo? And maybe not! Either way, National Novel Writing Month (November) is right around the corner, and it's your opportunity to crank out 50,000 words. Maybe you're writing a novel (or want to be); maybe you're not. But chances are, given you're receiving this Word-zine, that you're writing (or want to be writing) something.
Using a month (since November's next up, it's handy!) as fuel for a quantum leap forward just, well, works. At least it did for me.
No, I'm not writing a novel, and I probably never will. So I paid very little attention to NaNoWriMo. Until November 1 of last year, which happened to be one of those "0" birthdays for me. I made a vow to spend the entire year ahead trying things I'd never done before.
Then my friend Vivé Griffith, whom I met, along with my friend Dede Mitchell, some 28 years ago at a
mountain writing retreat led by Irene Blair Honeycutt, called to wish me "Happy All Saint's Day" as she always does, and asked if I wanted to do NaNoWriMo with the two of them. "You can work on your memoir," she said. "And you don't have to write 50,000 words. Just write as much as you can."
Like me,
Vivé and Dede are poets, essayists, and memoirists. (Here we are together in Blue Hill, Maine, last summer, after seeing E.B. White's house.)
How could I say no to such a fun, accommodating game with two such dear friends? This certainly counted as something I'd never done before.
And wouldn't it be great to deeply engage with my memoir Erasing Texas, a story about how our time in Texas almost shattered our 28-year-marriage?
Vivé, Dede, and I laid down simple ground rules. Each day
that we wrote, we emailed each other our total word count, and one sentence from the day's work. If we wanted to, we could also log our word count on the official NaNoWriMo site.
Vivé sent us a great Excel spreadsheet she'd made with a column for the date, working title, notes, and word count, and we were off. It was so much fun to pick one sentence and send it, and to read my friends' sentences. (Here's the one I pulled from the piece I'm sharing as today's featured writing: "Like the cracks in the sidewalks on my way to school, caused
by tree roots, most of them, so tiny at first, widening over the years."
My father used to always say, "Forget trying. It's results that count. And here were my results: for the entire year, between 11/01/2015 and 11/1/2106, I logged 7 times
of writing pieces for Erasing Texas, for a total of 2,974 words. (Now, I'm not saying I didn't write other things, and I did a lot of mulling and idea-gathering. But still!) And from November 1 to November 30, 2016, I wrote 22 days for a total of 18,220 words. That, while not my target of 25,000 words, was a huge leap forward.
And what's even better? I've been writing pretty steadily ever since.
So what do you think? Ready to give NaNoWriMo a try, in some
form or another? Head on over to the site and register if you want to, and check out all the tips and resources.
I will LOVE it if you do! And love it even more if you post your word count and a sentence from every day you write on the WordPlay Facebook page: www.facebook.com/wordplaynow. I'll do the same!
Love and light, Maureen Upcoming WordPlay
Connect with Your Creativity at the Sunset
Inn
(Writing—and more—as Renewal and Inspiration) Renew yourself and reconnect with
your own creativity, whether you are a practicing writer, closet writer, or as-yet-to-pick-up-the-pen writer! The techniques and prompts we’ll use will spur your imagination, and can be used to create nonfiction, fiction, and/or poetry—the choice is yours.
$418 + room tax for the weekend beginning either Friday, November 10th through Sunday November 12th or Friday, November 17th through Sunday, November 19th. The Coastal Writing Retreat includes writing sessions, two nights’ lodging, two breakfasts and Saturday lunch (hotel tax and Saturday dinner at a local restaurant not included).
Want to extend your retreat? If you’d like to stay another day to write, or to just enjoy the beach, the Inn is offering Coastal Writing Retreat participants the opportunity to stay Sunday night at half price.
(Extra writing retreat sessions are a possibility too. Email info@wordplaynow.com if you’re interested.)
WHERE: The Sunset Inn, 9 North Shore Dr., Sunset Beach, NC 28468
WHEN: Friday, November 17th – Sunday, November 19th, 2017
TO REGISTER: Contact the Sunset Inn at 888.575.1001 or 910.575.1000 (if you would like to handpick your room, view your choices here first, then call). Because the Inn is holding rooms for our retreat participants, a number of them are blocked
off as unavailable online. Phone to check on your choice.
*Also, please let the Inn know when you call if you are interested in staying Sunday night, November 19th, at half price. The Inn will hold your reservation with a credit card.
More WordPlay opportunities here.
Featured
Writing
I Must Have Shown Him My Childhood World from the memoir-in-progress
Erasing Texas
by Maureen Ryan
Griffin
I must
have walked with him down Old French Road to 39th, past Mason’s fruit and vegetable stand, past the house with the plum trees that dropped their fermenting fruit on the sidewalk every September, past the VA hospital, and then across 39th, where I could choose to walk down Fruit, or Sunset, or Parade.
I would have taken him down Parade; it was my favorite. Would I have shown
him the shortcut through the small apartment building’s parking lot, the route I took when I had to really, really hurry to make it to school on time, instead of just hurrying like I usually did? Was there ever, in that house I grew up in, a school-day morning that wasn’t rushed? Did I tell him about the time I picked up the chunk of rock salt my nine-year-old self believed was an actual gemstone?
Surely.
Those times we came to Erie before and after we got married, we would have driven to St. Luke’s for Mass on Sunday morning, the five-minute trip reminding me how short the distance really was. How long it seemed when I was 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13.
Distances do that,
don’t they? Shrink with time. Well, some of them do. And some of them expand, grow apart. Like the cracks in the sidewalks on my way to school, caused by tree roots, most of them, so tiny at first, widening over the years. Widening enough to break.
~ Maureen Ryan Griffin
From the memoir-in-progress Erasing Texas WordPlay Now! Writing
Prompt This is WordPlay—so why not revel in the power and potential of one good word after another? This week, it's
"November."
PROMPT: How much, and how often, would you like to write this month? Set your own writing goal for November, inside or outside of NaNoWriMo. And, hey, at least check out the site, even if 2017 is not your year for it. I heard it about every November for years before I took on my modified version.
And every day you write, you're invited to come on over to www.facebook.com/wordplaynow and post your word count and a sentence your writing session.
MAUREEN RYAN GRIFFIN, an award-winning poetry and nonfiction writer, is the author of Spinning Words into Gold, a Hands-On Guide to the Craft of Writing, a grief workbook entitled I Will Never Forget You, and three collections of poetry, Ten Thousand Cicadas Can't Be Wrong, This Scatter of Blossoms and When the Leaves Are in the Water. One of her long-held dreams came true in July of 2015 when Garrison Keillor read one of her poems on The Writer's Almanac. She believes, as author Julia Cameron says, "We are meant to midwife dreams for one another."
Maureen also believes that serious "word work" requires serious WordPlay, as play is how we humans best learn—and perform. What she loves best is witnessing all the other dreams that come true for her clients along the way. Language, when used with
intentionality and focus, is, after all, serious fuel for joy. Here's to yours! |
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