The official blog of Michelle Tuckett, word ninja.

Right now, we’re still in the first blushes of NaNoWriMo. Those who have started are beginning to feel what it is like to write their stories, to write and keep writing, feeling that initial rush of a plot beginning to form (I don’t think that feeling ever goes away).

Some, like me, have yet to begin. Some, also like me, have yet to decide what to write. And we’re okay too – even though by the 1,667 words each day standard we might be “behind,” but no one writes just that much each day – no one I know, at least.

Personally, I don’t believe in being behind – only needing to work harder once we begin. Last year, I wrote my novel in the last week of November out of necessity, the rest of the month, practicing it’s shape in my mind so much that it tumbled from me Athena-like: fully formed and ready to fight.

It doesn’t matter if we haven’t begun, as long as we know we will.

It might take patience and a little more time, but we will begin and we will finish.

We all have a story inside of us, waiting to get out. It might fit well into a plot you make for yourself, or it might be nestled somewhere, curled up on our shoulder or behind our tear ducts, already in the shape it will take. Somewhere in you, there is a story waiting to be born.

These stories ache, itch, tap at us as we choose what Netflix to binge watch and what books to read. It bothers us while we drive or wash the dishes. It hums us to sleep and makes us feel strangely empty when we wake from a night of dreaming.

The more insistent and vivid the story, the longer it has taken us to accept the calling to write something as mad and grandiose as a novel in a month, the better we are at ignoring these stories’ constant chatter. We’ve turned down their radio volume to low; and it might be hard to hear them now that we want to.

What we can do while we wait to begin, as we are busy with life for a minute, while we wait for that thread of energy to pull us along, while we hunt for the story, we can turn the volume of this inspiration back up – begin to listen to the hum of our stories, or imagination, and see if there’s something we’re ready to write, some story ready to be part of this November.

I’ll bet almost anything, it has been waiting a long time for you to notice it.