I must be out of my mind, but I’ve signed up for NaNoWriMo again this year. I skipped it last year because I didn’t have anything worth pursuing idea-wise and I was working on edits for The Lokana Chronicles like a madwoman. This year, though, I’ve decided to take the plunge.
Clearly, I am insane.
Well, the October Memoir and Backstory Blog Challenge is finished. At least, it’s finished for me, anyway. I’ve never done a blog challenge before, and this one was a challenge in more ways than I had expected, but I’d like to think I’ve grown as a result.
Some of the posts were a challenge to write in that I had trouble coming up with things to write about (my teen years and my early twenties, most notably), while others were a challenge because I had so many fun stories to choose from and it was hard to pick just one thing to write about (the early childhood years). Other posts were a challenge to write because they dealt with topics that I’ve spent a lot of time blocking out or just plain not dealing with. I don’t cope well with change, especially if that change is negative in any way. It’s not something I ever learned how to do and I wonder if I ever will. But…
About a week ago or so, I ran across an interesting blog challenge. Officially, it’s called the October Memoir and Backstory Blog Challenge. That’s a bit of a mouthful, so I shortened it up a bit for my post title. Anyway, you can find out more about it here on Jane Ann McLachlan’s blog and sign up for it, should you so desire, here. I thought it sounded like fun, so I signed right up.
On the off chance that you haven’t clicked through to find out what it’s all about, here’s the gist of it: Write 25 posts in 31 days. Sounds easy enough, right? Ah, but there’s a theme: Each post should be a memory or reflection for each of the first 25 years of life. From the original post:
It can be a personal memoir from your life, a reflection on turning a certain age, a recollection of someone else at that age, a poem or a photo, on the ages 1 to 25.
Suddenly they all died. The end. 