savannah storytelling

It’s Nov. 20 and I am two-thirds of the way to the finish line, writing a novel for the National Novel Writing Program, aka NaNoWriMo.

For those of you who didn’t read my article in the Closeup on Nov. 18, I should explain that I am attempting to write a 50,000 word novel during the month of November. It will be a rough draft only. In order to reach the target amount of words, I have to produce at least 1,667 words each day.

What will I gain if I do this? The personal satisfaction of completing a difficult project, 50,000 words toward a memoir that I want to write and, oh yes, NaNoWriMo will send me a certificate.

The last 10 days have been easier than the first 10 days. There was more time to write, as I wasn’t as busy and there was no computer crisis. I did have a cold last week. Even though it was uncomfortable for a few days, it worked to my advantage because I didn’t leave the house for a couple of days, therefore, I spent more time writing. Because of this, I made up the 542 words I was behind and have 1,600 words more than my target number for Nov. 20.

I’ve even had time to read the e-mails from other NaNoWriMo writers, giving advice and support. The e-mails were interesting, but not a lot of help. I found the one by Lynda Barry, who is a writer and artist, rather curious. She advises writing the novel by hand. She says that there is a kind of story that comes from writing by hand that makes the experience more lifelike.

She claims that the physical activity of writing by hand involves many parts of the brain which are used in story making, such as time, place, action, characters and relationships. She also advised not to read over what has been written for a few days; a week is best.

Here’s my problem with her advice: In writing by hand, the writer would have to eventually type the manuscript to send it to NaNoWriMo to be counted so that would take additional time, and time is of the essence with this project.

As for the second piece of advice, yes it is good to set your work aside and look at it again after a couple of days, but again, in this project, time is very important and quantity is more important than quality.

Lynda, your advice is good but not suitable for this project.

The book I hope to eventually write will be a memoir about my mother, Theodora Turner, who died last year at the age of 98. She was one of the thousands of strong and courageous women who left their families behind in Europe during the 1930s and 1940s and followed their husbands to America to start a new life. Many of these women never saw their families again because of World War II. They didn’t know the language and most were not well educated, but they worked to give their children more opportunities and a better standard of life.

I want to honor her, and the many like her, by telling her story. The problems she faced and how she adapted to the American way of life will be the theme of the book.

I have one concern about the next 10 days. I’ve been writing so fast since the first of November, that I find I have finished my story. Many times, in my hurry to produce the required number of words, I’ve written only the bare facts. Now, I have to go back to elaborate and put in details that were left out.

In the next 10 days, I need approximately 14,000 words to reach the 50,000 required amount. Will I be able to do it? We’ll find out together.