Now that the event is over and I have completed a good 50000 words of unadulterated writing fun, I can breathe. I can relax for a while. Look back at the month that just passed by with some satisfaction. I had achieved what I had set out to. No, the goal was not to complete a novel, a month is too short a time to write a good novel, at least for me it is. The goal was to get my love for writing back, to be able to show to myself that I still can write.

There are still self doubts on my ability to write fluently, well constructed sentences, use of punctuation, proficiency of English language, depth of vocabulary and many more. But, I know I can work upon them, one at a time. One month of writing has given me the confidence that one day I would be a decent writer, who would be able to translate a thought into words and be able to do some justice to them.

I love reading and writing stories, I want to write more and more of them because my mind is full of them. I wish there were 48 hours in a day and many hands just to put them down. Well I guess you have 24 hrs and a pair of hand so that you write the best and the most interesting ones. I have to make a choice and my next is an epic. It is a long story. I know for sure I will never be able to complete it and never be able to publish it, but I will write it, for myself.

Thank you NaNoWriMo for igniting the flame once again and bringing me back to what I love doing — Writing.

30 Days of uninhibited writing can only be good. I spent the entire month of October in visualizing and preparing for the event. I read through some of the best pep talks I have read in a while and set about planning my writing sprints. I did some bit of writing practice while putting together my professional blog and read through great bit of resources around the internet and fiction and non-fiction books at my disposal.

Some of the advice I got have been very helpful in overcoming writer blocks that are bound to happen in a writing marathon like this. I will try to share them as I go along.

My aim for today was to write 5000 words as it was a holiday today in Bangalore and I might not get as much time during rest of the week, hence a decent start always comes in handy. I finished with 4041 words, which was much beyond my expectation actually. before I talk more about my day I would like to highlight the story that I have planned to write.

The novel I have chosen to write is in the romantic genre and is title — “Letters from across the street”. The story is set in modern urban India which is progressing at a fast pace, people are too busy going about their lives to notice love blossoming between two complete strangers who spend hours everyday looking at each other from across the street. Yet they do not have the courage to cover the short distance of a few feet that lay between them. One fine morning a letter arrives, it is from the stranger across the street. What are the contents of the letter? Will they have the courage to cover the short distance? and Will they confess their love?

I have designed a cover for the novel which can be found — here

It always motivates you to have an image or the end goal in front of you as it eggs you on to do your targets, hence I designed the cover.

The first day started off really well for me with 1600 words out-of-the-way in less than two hours in the morning, the next 1500 words took about 10 hours and the last 1000 words about 30 mins. So I realized, it is not going to be smooth sailing all the way and would need me to focus more at different times of the day to meet my goals. Hopefully I will be able to apply my learning in the coming days.

Now that I have some pages of the story already written, the characters of my novel are beginning to step out from the realms of my imagination and have started to live and breathe in my thoughts, slowly evolving as the story progresses. I noticed one thing that as soon as you start typing your thoughts turn to words, words into sentences and sentences into paragraphs and before you know it the story starts unfolding in front of you and you the writer becomes more of a mediator between your readers and the story. From there on it takes a completely different turn.

I also had a great time interacting with fellow Wrimo buddies who kept encouraging me to meet my goals. It was truly wonderful to interact with you all.

A bit of philosophy, a bit about my experience,and some tit bits and behind the scene is all that I hope to capture through these posts. I hope you enjoy reading them as much I enjoyed writing them. Cheers!

an excerpt from my first day’s work

Sunny Day, Blue Sky
You and I

Setting Sun, Golden Beach
You and I

Moonlit Night, Sparkling sky
You and I

Freezing Weather, Mountain Peak
You and I

Match Light, Dark Caves
You and I

Wonderful Place, Majestic Palace
You and I

Flowing River, High Waterfall
You and I

Singing Birds, Quiet Forest
You and I

Velvet Garden, Red Roses
You and I

Gushing winds, Open Field
You and I

Thundering Clouds, Rainy day
You and I

Dream World, Perfect Place
You and I

Heaven above, World below
You and I

My Heart, Your Heart
You and I