From the Inkwell, From the Vein.....

I've placed in my first contest..... I've received my first prize-money check.....I've had my first interview...... and all of this from one small, 741-word flash fiction piece, Charon's Lament. Had I known when I was writing and re-writing what I thought I would never be able to shave down below the 750-word max---that the piece and contest I almost gave up on---would land a 2nd place win, and on-line publication, I might have cursed my wordy sentences and my befuddled brain a little less. There was a point, somewhere in the middle of one of those sleepless nights where I almost said, to hell with it. I almost tore my red-inked pages to shreds, almost slammed my laptop shut caring not to save whatever I had just typed, almost flopped back onto my bed--relishing the sour mood of defeat, which would have been far easier to endure. Almost. Almost. What it was that kept me going, I don't know if I'll ever know. It certainly wasn't confidence in my writ...

So, 2 days from now I plan on embarking on a sort of Literary Marathon. For those who have never heard of NaNoWriMo--National Novel Writing Month--essentially, the month of November will be devoted to composing a 50,000 word novel in just 30 days. It is essentially an exercise in quantity over quality as the purpose is specifically word count with the intent of shutting down the internal editor that keeps most of us from finishing the "Great American Novel". These last few days have been complete agony as the storyline I have is screaming to come out and be written. I think it's actually been harder to contain myself until November 1st than it has been coming up with a story to write about. I've written 2 other books up to the 50,000-word mark, so I at least know the amount of work that goes into it, but this will be the absolute first time that I will try to do it all in one month, I just hope my sanity lasts and that my husband will forgive being ignored for the...