Every year during November, the Cafe comes alive again while we talk about our experiences as we write our novels for National Novel Writing Month. I decided to take a different spin on the “from the trenches” posts as we call them. We write them the day they go live without another pair of eyes to edit them for us, in the heat of however we happen to feel about our novels at the time. Thus the “from the trenches” designation.
I decided to write my posts using an extended metaphor of writing being a war zone and NaNo being my tour of duty. That is sometimes what it feels like to a “NaNo Veteran” (those of us who have done NaNo before call ourselves). I was able to project my thoughts and feelings about the writing, the struggle, the excitement, my duties as ML (and the loss of our family dog) to fit the metaphor.
I did it to give myself an outlet for creativity in a month that sometimes feels like a slog. Instead of dreading my Cafe posts, complaining about how I was struggling with the writing or I was tired and my diet had gone off track completely, I looked forward to how I could turn my usual complaints about NaNo into something creative.
Please note: I meant no disrespect or offense by this comparison. I do not mean to belittle any actual veterans or imply that writing a novel is anywhere near as important as those in the military serving our country. Or that I have any actual combat or veteran experience. It was simply meant to be a metaphor.
Thanks for reading. I hope you had a pleasant NaNoWriMo experience and that maybe my metaphor was something you could relate to.