The Pulse

We've done it! At last! The one week mark is past, and the year's best holiday of all is upon us (okay, maybe it's not better than Chocolate Covered Anything Day, but who can wait until December 16th for that?)! I speak not of All Hallow's Eve, but of the glorious, mad, insane event known as National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo! Huzzah!

Now that it's so close, there's a strange thing going on all over the world. You can just feel and tap into that glorious energy that's abounding. People on every continent are getting excited, are gearing up for NaNoWriMo. It's so powerful I'm stuck halfway between hooting and hollering with joy and crying for sheer awesomeness.

It happens every year, too. To someone that's never done NaNoWriMo, it doesn't make sense, but it's almost like a pulse inside of every participant. It starts right around the end of September, when we realize that the forums open next month, and we get to be sucked back into the majesty of the event. Early October, the real die-hards pop up full of energy, planning their masterwork.

Then we hit this. The pulse is so strong you can feel the sheer power in your breast, threatening to burst out, and it gets stronger every second. Now, maybe this has something to do with NaNo Eve falling on All Hallow's Eve, and the spirits of the unfulfilled writers are filling us up to do get the same high we get, but by the time we hit the 31st of October, all of us go insane.

I think the big thing, the one thing that truly makes NaNoWriMo so amazing, is that it breaks the stereotype. When we think of authors, they're always suffering, drinking, dropping acid, and have way too many sticks shoved in a not so pleasant place to have sticks shoved into. They go through agonizing spells of writer's block (which doesn't exist) and decide that they need to piddle upon us lowly peons trying to make a name in their world.

NaNo probably makes their skin crawl, if they exist. Anyone can and should write a novel--that's how we operate. That's why people come in the first place--the memories, the pulse, brings them crowding back every year.

So, as the pulse grows stronger and stronger, and novelists break free from their chrysalides, we go. Write-ins are planned, plots are laid down, characters sketched and profiled, intravenous coffee is briefly considered, kick-offs are designed, MLs are worshipped, and large, thick lockboxes are decorated so as to imprison our inner editors in the coming month.

NaNo. NaNo. NaNo. NaNo. NaNo. NaNo. NaNo.

NANO!

NaNo NaNo (it would be great if somebody actually got that reference...but I doubt they will...too old school for a lot of you, I'm sure...)

Now, away with you, oh holy pilgrims of the inkwell! Prepare!
Voss