This weather makes me want to write …

Ah, autumn. It’s that time of year again. The days get shorter, the leaves get colorful. There’s a bite in the air and the sun gets a little kinder. It’s bittersweet, welcoming the end of summer but knowing the cold is coming.

It’s October, which means I better start narrowing down my story line for my NanoWriMo novel. Yes, I’m still editing last year’s book. It will be ready one of these days. I refuse to rush it! National Novel Writing Month, for those who don’t know, is described as “30 Days of Literary Abandon”. It’s about writing 50,000 words of a novel in 30 days. That breaks down to 1,667 words per day.

————-

If you could write anywhere you wanted, where would that be?

= On a beach with a laptop?

= A coffeeshop in a cozy corner on a comfy chair?

= Your living room?

= In a park, lying on the grass or sitting on a bench?

My favorite place to write is a coffeeshop. Fewer distractions, wonderful smells and the perfect creative atmosphere. I keep telling Amy we need to take a weekend at the Grove Park Inn and write beside the mineral pools, and if it didn’t cost so much we’d be there in a heartbeat. We could even stay in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s old rooms – and hopefully cause just as much trouble as he did, so we could get inspiration for what to write about.

My favorite place to write during NanoWriMo? Anywhere. (Otherwise it wouldn’t get done!)

————-

Do you prefer typing or pen and paper?

————-

I thought about putting my current plan on hold and writing about running this year. Because I’m training for a marathon, writing a novel, and still getting the everyday stuff done. But how many more running books does the world need? What could I offer that the running community doesn’t know already?

And I thought about working on my grandmother’s memoirs as my book. But 50,000 words in 30 days and conducting all the interviews? Would be tough. Really tough. On those lines, I’m still thinking of doing a nonfiction work interviewing all of the members of my immediate family. Maybe if I’m bugging several people instead of one person, I won’t be so annoying during the month … writing a family memoir of sorts. Or I could still do the fiction angle, based on some of the stories my grandmother has told me about the crazy party days along the shores of Lake Wylie (some of this stuff is good! Especially coupled with my imagination …)

Guess I need to decide, huh?