It’s started. Can you believe that November is already here? Well it is and as much as I am as surprised as anyone, it has started.

No it did not come in with a bang. It has not shaken the ground on which I stand, and although I had hoped to be gung-ho, excited, longing to get up in the morning, 3 days into November, I’m wondering how I missed 3 days.

Oh, no I’m not talking about Thanksgiving or the long lay up to Christmas, or looking forward to seeing family for the holidays. I’m talking about National Novel Writing Month. This thing, this web site, this community of writers that push writers all around us to write a novel in 30 days.

When does it start you ask? Well November 1st of course.

I was ready. Yup, this was discussed in my critique group 4 weeks ago. Were we excited? Check. Were we all going to do it? Check (though some of us not officially signing up at National Novel Writing Month). Were we all going to complete the novels we have been working on forever? You betcha.

So why am I 3 days into the month without nothing being written, feeling like I’ve failed already? Maybe because life is such a tough task master. Maybe because the best laid plans…or maybe because it silently snuck up on me a little over a week after a call to come home.

Life threw me a curve ball. It was a slow curve ball, one I’ve seen coming for a while, but still had hope it wouldn’t cross the plate just yet. And I could blame my forgetfulness, my lack of will power, my lack of enthusiasm for writing due to my mom’s death and no one would blame me.

The long slow curve ball crossed the plate little more than a week ago and all my best laid plans and intentions dissipated in the overwhelming loss I did not expect. No matter how long you see it coming, it’s still devastating. Her death allows me to sit back and let another November or another year to go by without completing my novel.

Funny things happen when family dies. People pull out photos, and find lost items long ago hidden or forgotten. One of those things were my mom’s poetry. I was probably one the few people that knew she wrote. She was a great artist and a very good writer. I give her credit for nurturing that writing bug in me. I used to write notes to her or to my muse growing up (she answered everyone of them). Like the lost and hidden photos, jewelry, and newspaper articles, I too had forgotten she loved to write poems. A lot of her poems were found recently.

That thought that she had never given up her writing made me do something last night and today which pushes me to get back on track.

I need to find motivation, I need to use her strength and love of writing to put aside 3 missed days and press on. So I have critiqued a story for our meeting this Friday. I have read a couple of Reader Digest Articles. I have read tips on blogging. And now I write a post for my own blog. None of this may sound like it is a step in the NNWM direction, but I assure you that as I type these last words my mind is already somewhere else.

Guess now it is time for me to move from here to my word document where about half of my draft sits along with another quarter ready for me to tidy up. I may be 3 days late into this project, but I have no where to go but up.

Thanks mom for pointing me in the write direction even after all these years. You will be missed.