Write or Die

Not a death threat or anything. But as I was driving my kids to school this morning, I was thinking about what I would write for my post NaNoWriMo thoughts. Of course there is always meaning in the title. A while back I watched an anime called, “Read or Die.” I was drawn to it first because of the title. Then as I watched the opening scenes, the main character wakes up surrounded by books. Every part of her apartment is covered in piles of books. Yeah, this was looking like my kind of show. Of course she had just gotten paid. Guess what she did with her paycheck... she went and bought all sorts of new books. As the show continued, I learned that she was like a paper controlling super hero. She uses her power to control paper and it forms into anything she needs, a shield, a plane, anything.

So what does this have to do with me, my NaNo 2014, and the title of this post? Well, that is a really good question. This year NaNoWriMo was very different for me. In the last 5 days of the month, I wrote 33,000+ words. I have found myself behind on my word count before, but nothing like that. I sort of expected that. I mean with school, papers to grade and lessons to plan, as well as two kids in high school, and one in middle school - all of the activities and things that I need to do I was pretty sure this was not going to be one of those 'winning' kinds of years. I had actually hoped for 30,000. (I secretly had not given up on 50,000, but I was keeping that to myself.)

So the day before Thanksgiving (no school) I sat down to write. The story came easily... and I kept writing. By Saturday morning I knew I could do it.. it would be hard, but I could do it. Then 10K words on Saturday. WOW! Most ever words in one day for me. Which left me a tiny 1800 that needed to be written on Sunday. But Saturday night, I did not want to stop writing. I was in a place in the story that was so exciting. New things were happening. Things I had not even planned at all. And I wanted to see where it was going. It was getting late and my eyes were blurry. I kept typing. But all sorts of strange typos were appearing on my screen. So I knew I needed to go to sleep. This is where the 'write or die' comes in. Even knowing I needed to sleep, I really really just wanted to write. It reminded me of the girl in the anime.

Then Sunday came. I easily finished. Or I should say reached 50,000. I am no where near finished with the story. I might be half way. But I am not even sure about that. Now, I have to get some of my 'real life work' done. Grade papers. Prepare for the coming week. I felt so horrible not writing. My characters were screaming inside my head. They still are! Some part of me has always known that I had to write. I can go for a while without writing. But eventually I have to 'Write or Die.'