November is for Written and Visual Arts

It’s November. This means three things to add to my daily schedule that aren’t there for the rest of the year.

First is NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month. In November for the last four years, I’ve sat down and written 50000 words toward a new novel. None of these works are complete as yet, but they’re started. They exist.

This year’s novel (at least what I’m working on at the moment) is derived from the question “What would happen if whenever a person died, everything they ever wrote would simply disappear?”

I wrote a little over 2000 words last night to get started.

The sun briefly shown through the shattered window. Water swirled around Watsen’s feet, reddened with his own blood.
“We won’t fail.”
He caught a glimpse of the other vessel, riding along-

Abruptly the words were gone. Axel shouted.
“No!” he cried. He flipped through the pages. All were blank.
He shook the book.
“No no no! Not yet! Not now!” He flipped through the pages again.
“No!”
He tossed the book aside.

It’s also Art Every Day Month. During November, I try to spend 15 minutes or so drawing or painting something. I didn’t succeed last year, but maybe I will this year. Only that the only thing I have to show for day one is this pizza that looks remarkably like Starry Night by Vincent van Gogh.

November is also DINOvember. Just wait for silly pictures of dinosaurs getting themselves into mischief throughout the month. It’s a bit like elf-on-the-shelf, but way cooler (seriously).

So it’s shaping up to be a busy month for me. My hope is that this month will inspire me to get back into writing regularly on this blog. Let’s hope it does!