NaNoWriMoI took the challenge and I was successful. I was able to write 50,000 words in a month. I have a hard time calling those words a novel. The story is nowhere near complete. I do not think any of these words would survive a second and third draft, but those things are not important. What is important is that I did it.
I still want to keep on working on this story. I am not sure the story will ever be in any shape to publish. It might not get even be good enough to let anyone else read. I still want to figure out what happens to these characters. The characters have really come alive to me.
This year was different because I was not in San Jose the whole time. Being in the Philadelphia area for two weeks, I was unable to hook up with the writers here. It would be nice if I could have, but it just did not work out. I wrote most of my novel after midnight eastern time or in little moments when I could pull out my laptop.
Every year National Novel Writing Month has been different for me. I know some people who have done NaNoWriMo and feel that they do not have to do it again. They tell me that there is nothing left for them to accomplish in terms of NaNoWriMo. One of them asked me why do I keep on doing it.
I keep on doing it because it has been something new every year. I am going to do it again next year because I am not sure what it will bring me. Last year it was hard and not very enjoyable. This year I had to focus in a different way. It taught me something different about my writing.
In my first year I accomplished my lifelong goal of writing a novel. It is a goal I have had since college. Now my goal is to write a novel that is worth letting other people read. I am not sure that I will ever be able to do that with a NaNoWriMo novel. I would like to write something good enough for other people to read.
Even if I cannot write that novel doing NaNoWriMo, I am going to keep on doing it. There are things I know about myself as a writer and things I don’t know about myself as a writer. I feel like the category of things I don’t know is still larger. Doing NaNoWriMo helps me learn some of the things I don’t know.
The QuestionWhen I come to the Philadelphia area to visit there is one question I hear in many different forms. People like to ask me either “How much longer are you staying in San Jose?” Or “When are you going to move back to the East Coast?” Half the time someone else chimes in “He’s never coming back.”
I can never say if I ever going to leave San Jose or move back to the Philadelphia area. Even if I left San Jose it would not mean that I would be moving back near my family. I have no plans to leave San Jose anytime soon. I like my job and I have a hard time seeing anything drag me out of San Jose. With Dreamgirl in my life, leaving San Jose becomes even harder.
As I was driving around Warminster yesterday I was thinking about what it would be like to live here again. It was different this time because I was wondering what it would be like to live here with Dreamgirl. I wondered what our lives would be like here. I have never thought about it that way before. I have a hard time seeing it happen anytime soon, but I still thought about it.
Where Is Home?My parents’ house no longer feels like home to my. The same goes for my hometown of Warminster. To be honest, they stopped feeling like my home a long time ago. They really not felt like home since 2000.
The interesting thing is that San Jose started feeling like home about two years ago. It is easier for a place to stop being your home then it is for a place to become your home. This just makes sense to me. It takes a lot for someplace to be important. I know that attachments do not come easily. Attachments need time to root and grow. At first it is hard to let this happen.
I am happy to be hading back to San Jose. I have not seen Dreamgirl in way too long. I am looking forward to sleeping in my own bed. Vacation is nice, but I know work is waiting for me. It will feel good to be back in San Jose.
