Nows and Forevers

Less than a week to NaNoWriMo. Just one problem: I’m not sure what I’m going to write.
Because of my yearslong sojourn learning to read and write in Welsh, I’ve got a backup of fictional story ideas in various stages of development. Not only are they pieces that are drafted but unpublished, but they’re also ideas that I keep in a notebook and in my journal. There are two reasons why I dropped out of my Welsh classes halfway through my third year: one was that I began a book project that I knew I needed to write. I’m still working on that book project, nonfiction, and earlier this month came back from a research trip. I’ve written some of that draft but I’m still in deep research, so that doesn’t fit the spirit of NaNoWriMo.
Instead, I’m going for something new. Driving around, working out, going for a walk, waking up in the middle of the night, I’ve been thinking a lot about what I want to write about. There are ideas I’ve been kicking around for a long time, others that have come to me only recently. I’ve never really hurt for ideas. Getting to the point where I want to release them into the world, that’s another story.
So many stories. That’s the way I like it: Enough stories to last me a lifetime or two. I know I’ll die with stories to write, no matter how long I live. The goal is to finish as many as I can. I love to write. I need to write. A year ago, I was called to it anew. I haven’t taken a day off since.
That commitment begins anew a week from today.