Letters To Myself (#Nanowrimo2017 Winning Novel!)

12,

Dear Myself,

I have made some very drastic and potentially life-changing plans but possibly all at the wrong time of year with lots of things on my mind and events happening within my family and sixth form life. But I'm going to do this because the motto clearly is that you live once and only once. A cat has nine lives metaphorically but sadly, I'm not one of those cute, fluffy house pets that you cuddle each morning and night. Enough of the waffle, let's cut to the chase about what I'm actually trying to say.

I am going to write a novel. A full-length, planned out piece of writing that will keep myself motivated and positive for the coming weeks ahead. Just yesterday as I was travelling home on the last day of term (spring break is finally here!), I just happened to be scrolling down my Twitter feed and noticed a tweet about a writing event that happens during the months of April and June each year called Camp Nanowrimo. During these camps, you set a word count target that you try and achieve within that month. Normally, it's 50,000 words but with final Year 13 exams coming up and baby arriving any day now, my goal is 30,000 words exactly.

I do love to write and that has stemmed from being part of book events from a young age. I don't really show my writing to anyone, obviously not showing you to anyone Diary! No peeping looks from Damien or either of my parents! But whenever I need an escape, a breather from the stresses of daily chores and life in general, I write things down. I love updating you every week with what's been happening in my world but now, I would like to try writing something fictional. And my book idea is this.

It's about a girl who finishes GCSEs and along with some friends, they go on a summer road trip across the south of England in a BMW van decorated with some fancy artwork such as flower car stickers and curtains on the inside and during this road trip, they all have their friendships and various love lives put to the test. It's going to be sun, sand, surfing, poodles and spaghetti madness and hopefully for anyone else other than myself who does read this, it will be heart-warming and fun but with an important message.

From under my bed, brushing past the hundreds of cobwebs that surrounded all of the boxes of items stacked against each other, I discovered a notebook that I obviously hasn't written in before and so, have decided to turn it into my Camp Nanowrimo planning book not just for this Camp but any other events I participate in this year and further into the future. The way I structure my writing notes out is by bullet points of each chapter, bit by bit, the story and all of the characters come together which makes me all the more excited for the writing process. There is a Creative Writing club at my school but the students that go are mainly from the lower school so eleven and twelve year olds who are new to the whole theme and adventures of drafting out scenes. As I'm turning eighteen later this year, I think the younger students would feel scared and intimidated if I showed up and plonked my bags down on the desk.

Apart from you Diary, I won't mention to anyone else that I'm writing this novel. Damien certainly isn't to know, he's got such a blabber mouth that secrets just casually slip off the tip of his tongue and instead of keeping close friends, he loses them when he lets his guard down at the wrong moments. Mum would most likely tell me to shelve the story writing until the summer but that's far too long to wait, impatient Morwenna won't take that as an option! I have to write, release my inner words from my thinking and prove to myself that in a time of life that feels and looks rough and crusty, I can break free from it as a stronger and much more positive person.

The website itself was strange to sign-up to. From all of the social medias that I have accounts on, it seemed that every user and writer seemed to know each other and therefore all occupied virtual cabins for writing in. But on seeing options for either not being in a cabin or ending up with random users in one, I decided to opt out with talking to people and sharing details about my writing for now. As I did mention earlier, this venture is a whole new ball game for me and getting off to a negative start or having nasty comments sent via email or private message is always discouraging.

YouTube is the place I go to whenever I need my bookish or comedy fix after finishing up coursework or writing in this book. One of my newly created playlists for video watching is to do with writing starting from the very basics (refreshers such as first chapters and planning) to actual users who have gone on to write multiple novels and win Camp Nanowrimo and the main Nanowrimo event held each November which the goal of 50K words looks almost impossible for me. But maybe by giving Camp a try, that could enable me to actually see if my writing is good enough, worth it, something that other users will enjoy.

Looking around and seeing some books on my to-be-read pile including the library books from the other day, my planning and motivation kicks in. For every target I reach, I will reward and that's what will keep me going up until the very end of Camp. Can I just quickly mention that I've never actually camped before unless just putting up your tent in the back garden aged eight on a hot, sunny day to supply some shade counts?

When this next entry starts, so would have Camp Nanowrimo. Let's hope I can balance everything out just right! I would rather swim then sink right to the bottom of the ocean floor.

Yours,

Morwenna.