Feliz Dia de los Muertos!
Today is All Souls Day, a Catholic holiday known as the Day of the Dead in Mexico. In honor of the holiday, here is The Boy’s painting of a skeleton:
I love the glitter.
It feels apropos that today is el dia de los muertos because I am almost brain dead at this moment. November is National Novel Writing Month. (See sidebar.) It has been nearly five years since I last worked on a novel. My novel was a good first effort, but after four revisions I let it go. Unfortunately, I also let go of my regular writing schedule.
That is all changing. I’m kicking the body back into shape with a personal trainer. I’m kicking the brain back into shape with tougher reading. And now I’m going to be kicking the fiction writing skills into shape. (Notice I didn’t add “back”.)
How? By writing a novel this month.
Insane? Yes. Impossible? Probably. It took four steady months of writing to knock out 50,000 words last time, and this time I’m supposed to do it in 30 days. And I skipped yesterday.
But that’s what NaNoWriMo is about — taking on a seemingly impossible task to get us past the roadblock that’s kept us from writing. I say “us” because this applies to any of you who are interested in writing fiction. It’s free to join, and the only requirement to “win” is that you write 50,000 words this month. Hypothetically, “All work and no play make Jack a dull boy” repeated 5,000 times would qualify.
I’m going about it earnestly, though. I knocked out 2,2oo words this morning, and now my brain feels like it’s leaking into my sinus cavities. I need a snack.
I don’t know yet if I’ll let you read the final result, but now you know that I’m supposed to be writing every day. Feel free to hassle me about it.
Categories: Brain Workouts
Tags: Dia de los Muertos, NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month
Flabby Brain 