I grew up writing. I remember as a child staying up past my bedtime with a flashlight and my favorite notebook thinking up amazing stories. I dabbled in poetry and short stories, convinced by the time I was a teenager that I would be a published author by the time I was 30. Yeah, well, that didn’t happen. I continued to write, encouraged by the feeling of seeing my imagination take on the tangible form of words on paper. There is just something soul-satisfying about expressing oneself through the written word. I have been entranced by literature for as long as I can remember. I am that person who can completely disappear inside of a book, envisioning the scenes, the characters, the voices as if I were standing in the middle of the story.

Years later, I still find the same satisfaction from writing. Unfortunately, so much of my recent writing has been academic or professional in nature rather than for pure pleasure. While that is not necessarily a bad thing, I’ve spent so much time researching the writing of others and drawing from their words that I feel as if my own voice has become barely a whisper. I am hoping that during the NaNoWriMo challenge I can reconnect with my own voice and let the words flow as they once did.

I am hoping that the time constraints and community support that exist within the NaNoWriMo event will provide some additional encouragement and motivation to get my board material to a final draft state. The event goal is 50,000 words in one month. Not sure I need that many words for my board packet, but am excited to see how far I get. May my fingers stay nimble and my vocabulary never run dry.