NaNoWriMo on the Horizon

There are few things that I am truly passionate about. I am not good at show lots of excitement, and vary rarely am I one to have an attack of nerves, but one of the things that always gets my blood flowing is NaNoWriMo.  This is going to be my sixth year participating in this nerve racking, creativity draining, brain clogging, nail biting, tea drinking adventure. For those that don't know what NaNoWriMo is, I will give you a very brief explanation. It is a non-profit program that is an writing exercise tool. The goal is to write 50,000 words between November 1st and November 30th.  There is no prize for accomplishing this goal, other than the self satisfaction of knowing that you did it.  Many writer accomplished authors have used this to kick out out lines for books and countless students have used this as a spring board for writing a thesis.

I do NaNoWriMo for me.  I don't do it for any one else. It is the one time of the year that I challenge myself. It is a time that I purposely try to move outside of my comfort zone and stretch myself thin, because I have found that when I stretch myself a little thing, some really amazing things come out.

Last year I had wanted to write some sort of autobiography about my life. I don't think that I have lead an extraordinary life, but it isn't over yet. Thinking about my life, it struck me that books have shaped me in ways that I would have never expected and used that thought as a jumping board to move forward on.  Did I talk about my life thus far? Yes. Did I learn a lot about myself? Oh my golly gosh, Yes! Taking on something that I thought would be a little bit of a challenge turned into a lot of a challenge and forced me to re-examine some of my choices I have made. It also gave me a look at the people in my life and how I interact with them.

I am not completely sold on what I am going to be writing about this year, because I have two idea's roaming around in my head, but that doesn't matter. I am looking forward to this challenge and this moment of reflection and personal growth. I highly recommend anyone to step outside of their comfort zone and take up this challenge. You never know what you are going to learn about yourself until you do.