NaNoWriMo - The End Is the Beginning

Indeed, it happened.

In twenty-six days I spewed 50,940 words onto 191 pages and called it a novel. Really a very rough draft of a novel, the product does contain the prototypical elements: Plot, characters, conflict, beginning, middle, end, and so on. This "novel" is no more publishable than a roughly hewed hunk of marble is a pieta. Many revisions must occur before it ever leaves the hard drive on which it now reposes. Yet even Michelangelo was once a rookie sculptor. I do not compare myself to the masters of art or literature, nor even to today's genuine authors, but I do relish the completion of something I'd never done and wasn't sure I could do.

This post is not to call attention to me. I really hope to share some observations for anyone who might consider a similar effort:

Like running, writing is a therapeutic passion. The investment of time and energy yields a  positive return in self-fulfillment and self-knowledge. "Wow, I really had that stuff skulking around inside my brain? Yikes! Talk about catharsis!" Quite fortuitously that catharsis comes without the cost of a shrink to set it loose. And, it beats the heck out of PowerPoint briefs, be it reading or making them.

Regardless of the actual written result, the creative process compels a deeper and broader understanding of life and self. A scene begins headed in one direction, but then it comes out all different...usually but not always better than originally conceived. Where did that come from? What subconscious power drove fingers over keyboard in exactly that sequence to produce exactly those words? Curiously, the ripest sentient idea sometimes never bridges the gap from brain to fingers. Instead a more profound expression takes form, one not fully conjured until it splays itself fully across the page, seemingly on its own power. It becomes the tangible summation of multiple cerebral synapses firing faster than the speed of light, or even of dark.

The NaNoWriMo challenge promotes that creative, insightful process. With only 30 days to put those 50,000 words into some sort of story, the erstwhile writer cannot afford the time to self-censor. And with that overbearing superego set aside, novel things do happen. That's the beauty of it.

In the end, it does not require perfection or publishability. It simply is. Just as the real value of a marathon is in the training, the benefit of this challenge is in the writing. At the end of the day you realize you can do it, and you want to do it again...and better.