November will be a busy month. First, it's National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), and so, I thought that it's a good way to challenge and discipline myself to commit to writing everyday. Commit to finishing the novel I've been telling myself I'll finish for the last seven plus years. Also, I'm supposed to submit three pieces for my writing group submission party/challenge by Thanksgiving, and I'm still at zero. I know, I really need to get going on this thing. So, in the spirit of NaNoWriMo, I will commit to writing. Everyday. (Sorry, if you hear a lot of this kind of ranting for the month, but I sometimes use this blog as a my drawing board/inspiration page - and if I write it here, it pushes me to do it since I'm telling all of you that I'm going to.)
And it's as if I wasn't busy enough with writing a novel (and writing classes), but I thought I'd participate in a winter Book Challenge, too. If you're interested in participating, I included the rules and categories on a separate page above, so check it out. I know it's crazy, but I also know that to be a good writer, I must be an avid reader (and not just an avid reader of case law and statutes and investigation reports). I must be an avid reader of stories. Different genre of stories, and thus, my commitment to the Book Challenge.
With all of that said, my job, of course, keeps me busy. And since it's what pays the bills and supports my writing classes and artistic passion, I need to keep working hard at it, which leaves very little time for anything else (but my loves, of course). However, I'm having fun and that's the point of it all, right?
Anyhow, I can't believe it's already November in a few hours! This has been quite a year - awesome in many respects, but very challenging, too. There has been many ups, but also many downs. But, I'm happy to report that I've kept up with the promise I made myself at the beginning of the year, and that's to keep moving. Because during the very "down times," it's easy to curl up on the couch and hide from the world. I didn't want to do that, and thus, I created my list of challenges - the things I wanted to do whether it's to hike every Saturday morning or take a writing class or take photographs of the sky - to keep myself moving. Forward. And I've found that with each move, each step, not only brought more smiles to my face but the calm and at-ease feeling of I'm right where I belong.
Now, again, because it's NaNoWriMo starting tomorrow, I thought I'd share this list I found about why we'll always need a good story:
Ten Reasons Why We'll Always Need a Good Story by Scott Russell Sanders
1. We delight in stories because they are a playground for language, an arena for exercising this extraordinary power.
2. Stories create community. They link teller to listeners, and listeners to one another.
3. Stories help us to see through the eyes of other people. Through stories we reach across the rifts not only of gender and age, but also of race and creed, geography and class, even the rifts between species or between enemies.
4. Stories show us the consequences of our actions. To act responsibly, we must be able to foresee where our actions might lead; and stories train our sight.
5. Stories educate our desires. Instead of playing on our selfishness and fear, stories give us images for that which is truly worth seeking, worth having, worth doing.
6. Stories help us dwell in place. Stories of place help us recognize that we belong to the earth, blood and brain and bone, and that we are kin to other creatures.
7. Stories help us dwell in time. History is public, a tale of influences and events that have shaped the present; the mind's time is private, a flow of memory and anticipation that continues, in eddies and rapids, for as long as we are conscious. Narrative orients us in both kinds of time, public and private.
8. Stories help us deal with suffering, loss, and death. Stories reek with our obsession with mortality.
9. Stories teach us how to be human. We are creatures of instinct, but not solely of instinct. More than any other animal, we must learn how to behave.
10. Stories acknowledge the wonder and mystery of Creation. [They] give us hope of finding meaning within the great mystery.
I know it's almost over but Happy Halloween!!!
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