Slaying the Dragon for the First Time: A NaNoWriMo Journey

December is here, and that means National Novel Writing Month is finished. After watching the excitement over NaNoWriMo for years on social media and in Writer's Digest articles, I decided to sign up...

Being a "Wrimo" means you write every day. Every. Day. Even if the laundry hamper is overflowing. Even if the dust in your living room is an inch thick. Or if something dire and unexpected happens that you absolutely cannot write a word (in my case a broken molar) you have to catch up in sprints. Or else you start to get the shakes. You start to feel guilty. You start to feel like something is missing.

Why?

Because NaNoWriMo makes writing a part of your daily habits, like brushing your teeth or exercising (well...for some...I count going up and down two flights of stairs with laundry as exercise). We become writers out of passion and inspiration. But we stay writers out of habit, because it becomes an intrinsic part of us as much as eating and breathing.

Dip into that creative well at least once a day and bring up some magic!

Today is December 1st, and I was looking forward to the time to clean up the house, decorate for Christmas some more, tackle some of the tasks that have been a bit neglected (or done hastily, a lick and a promise). What am I doing? Writing about NaNoWriMo. Why? Because my hands began to twitch.

I had to write SOMETHING today.  

Even though my Nano first draft is finished at 30K words. (Huzzah! I'm still in shock!) It's not 50K, so I don't officially win, but honestly I feel like a winner nonetheless. I sat down to write almost every day, and I completed a first draft of a story that became more than I expected it to. I proved to myself that I can write 10,000 words in one week. I proved to myself that I can finish a draft in a shorter time than 4 months (that's how long The Dragon's Message took me). I learned that if I just keep writing (don't stop to revise, don't stop, just keep typing just keep typing, don't you look back...) the characters and story magic will take over organically. I learned to trust in my imagination a little more, and I was rewarded now and again by those plot epiphanies that flood your mind with a light that lasts throughout the day.

Most of all, NaNoWriMo helped me to give myself the permission to make my writing time part of my daily routine. I had a definitive goal, a real deadline. And for that, NaNoWriMo is one of the best things that has happened to my career as a writer. I am proud to be a Wrimo!

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Fire Burn and Cauldron Bubble

ACT I

 

Scene I [An open place.]

 

Thunder and lightning. Enter Three Witches.

 

First Witch. When shall we three meet again?

     In thunder, lightning, or in rain?

 

Second Witch. When the hurlyburly's done,

     When the battle's lost and won.

 

Third Witch. That will be ere the set of sun.

 

 

Thus begins The Tragedy of Macbeth, my favorite Shakespearean play. And here is my burning question:

Why three witches?

The three witches, or "Weird Sisters," are Shakespeare's versions of the Three Fates: Clotho, who spins the thread of your life, Lachesis, who measures it, and Atropos, who cuts it. Indeed, these witches seem to know how to pull Macbeth's strings and influence him along his tragic path. This is shown most strongly in Macbeth's first line upon entering the stage:

Macbeth. So foul and fair a day I have not seen. (I.iii.38)

 

This directly connects to the witches' famous chant "Fair is foul, and foul is fair./ Hover through the fog and filthy air." (I.i.10) Herein lies one of the thematic undercurrents of Macbeth: Things aren't always what they seem in this place. (I'd bet my bust of Shakespeare...yes, I have one in my home library...that Jim Henson was influenced by this for his movie Labyrinth!)

 

Three has long been viewed as a "magic" number, and various mythologies have forms of a triad, or triple diety, with each aspect having certain qualities or functions.

Triple Goddess: Maiden, Mother, Crone

 

So next time you are stirring some eye of newt and toe of frog into your cauldron, make sure you say your incantation three times and think fondly of Master William Shakespeare!

 

If you are also fond of things not always being what they seem, and you happen to be a fan of Once Upon a Time, you may want to check out my joint article with Teresa Martin in the Once Upon a Fan Origins Archives: Rumplestiltskin's Transformation in Once Upon a Time: Literary Anti-Hero to Hero Archetype.

 

Oh look, a spinning wheel...how very Fate-like!

 

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