Despite all my little articles on here, I don't really feel like much of writer. Often, I find myself reading the work of other writers and feeling awed and astonished that a person could be so imaginative and manage to communicate it to other people. It seems so magical. So, after admiring from the sidelines, I'd really like to take a stab at writing; taking the time to write things even if there's not a deadline or grade or consequence attached is really foreign to me. And what better time than National Novel Writing Month this November?

Full disclosure, I'm not expecting myself to write a whole novel. I know that the actual challenge is to really and truly write a whole novel (or at least attain a novel-length word count) but I'm inexperienced, in college, and don't have any novel worthy ideas. Still, this framework of goal-oriented writing is making me feel inspired to build myself a challenge anyway, though I may not really be ready to take on the real NaNoWriMo requirements.

Here's the approach I'm planning: write for half an hour every day. Writing for class doesn't count toward this total and neither does research for whatever I may be writing about. Just a full thirty minutes of actual writing, putting words on paper/screen. Hopefully, if half an hour goes well, I can raise my amount of time as the month goes on and challenge myself to write more. At this time, all I'm asking of myself is just to write. Maybe a little story, a continuation of something I've already done, a little poem, even just something about my day. It isn't true to the challenge at all, and yet, I hope, I may still find something meaningful comes out of it.

Frequently, people look at the work and talents of others and pine for that skill set or dedication. Lately, I've been learning that anything you see, any project or publication or piece of art, is the result of time uncounted and hard work that no one ever really gets to see. The brilliance of writers I love has been earned by them, by their time and attention, by the care they take in developing their craft. As a beginner, I find this incredibly daunting and yet hopeful. I'm not the first one to look at a page and struggle to picture something being made from it, not the first to face a challenge and know I can't do it and, instead, choose to try anyway.

Odds are, practically everything I write this November will go nowhere. Most of it will be pretty bad, probably even downright awful. Somehow, I still find myself excited to begin.