I’m off on a 50,000 word journey for National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo, to its afficianados — oo, did I spell that right?). 12,150 words into the process of writing a novel in one month. I’m traveling along with old and new friends, some of whom have participated in NaNo before, so are able to provide good advice to the novices among us.

I started with a loose plot, and started that story, but had to write some of the back story before I could really get into the plot. I don’t expect THESE 50,000 words to be anything other than material I can re-work at some point, or edit into a 2-page essay or something, but I remember Madeleine L’Engle said something about writing that stuck with me.

“A book comes and says, ‘Write me.’ My job is to try to serve it to the best of my ability, which is never good enough, but all I can do is listen to it, do what it tells me and collaborate.”

My story has said, “Write me.” So I’m listening, doing what it tells me, and enjoying every step of the process.