November is NaNoWriMo. “What?” you ask. Well isn’t it obvious? It’s National Novel Writing Month
I participated in NaNoWriMo for the first time last year. On a whim, I decided I would sign up with the nonprofit organization that sponsors this annual, international one-month-long race to complete fifty thousand words toward the rough draft of my novel
And what fun I had! I made significant headway in a novel I started writing fifteen years ago. That’s right; this novel of mine (working title: Nampula) has been in the works since I was in my early thirties. This year, I’m continuing work on Nampula because I’ve read and reread what I started last year and can see I still have a long way to go. My goal in 2012 (as it was in 2011) is to write my fifty thousand words and then, once the month is over, go back to revise and polish what I’ve done.
It would be easy for me to get discouraged about the fact that I’ve been trying to write the same story for more than a quarter of my life, but I’m not going there and I’ll tell you why. Some stories have to be told and retold until meaning crystallizes. In my case, my two main characters (two very different women who encounter one another in Nampula, Mozambique shortly after the civil war in that country ends in the 1990s) can only be as mature as I am. Back when I started writing Nampula, I knew I had a story to tell, but I didn’t know how the characters would resolve their dilemmas or how they would muddle through their pain. The fact was, back then I didn’t know how I would resolve my own dilemmas or muddle through my own personal pain, so I couldn’t offer my characters much help. Things are different now–for me and for my two gals. We know who we are!
But what about you? Have you told and retold your stories? Are the meanings you’re making satisfying? Sometimes as we retell our stories to ourselves, we resolve them; sometimes we retraumatize ourselves by tracing back over our wounds, keeping them open. What we want is to participate in healthy retellings, the kind that let us revise and move forward a bit with each draft.
Starting in January, I’ll be offering a four-week tele-courses on this very topic of telling our stories in a constructive way. See details below and don’t hesitate to jot me a note with questions.
Happy story telling!
Writing Your Life:
A 4 Week Tele-Course that teaches you how to tell/write your personal stories in a constructive, healing, and truthful way.
What you’ll get:
*Help naming the chapters of your life
*An understanding of what has held your story back and how you can push through your personal barriers
*Support creating a plan for living into your dreams
*Instruction on how to recognize your support system (the readers of your life story) and how to recognize and get rid of the hecklers/critics/detractors
Dates and times to be determined
Cost will be $199
Stay tuned here to Camiostman.net for specific details. In the meantime, email me at clostman@live.com to let me know of your interest and to hold your.
