NaNoWriMo Afterparty: Playing God Is Awesome

When I was a mini-hairrorist of about four and about to enter preschool, my mom attempted to assuage my But-I-don't-wanna-leave-the-house! anxiety by telling me, "There will be arts and crafts, and you can make new friends!" Possibly putting those two concepts together a bit too literally, I imagined myself cutting and sewing fabric and yarn scraps together and filling them with polyfiber to make my new friends, who I guessed would look something like life-size Raggedy Anns and follow me around saying, "[The Hairrorist], you are awesome! Let's play whatever you want all the time!" I was dismayed to find that it didn't work quite like that, especially the part where I could control the looks, behavior, and pretty much everything else about the people who surrounded me, and have the clique I wanted regardless of my own social shortcomings. (Needless to say, junior high really sucked for me.)

Which is why writing fiction kicks ass. Before this month, I hadn't done it for months, even years, but I'm really glad I did decide to go with that one stupid half-assed idea. I love creating imaginary people out of whole cloth, dropping them into a common setting, and seeing where it leads us. I did hit 50,000 words at about 11:50 pm on Nov. 30, so I did technically win, but I wasn't able to upload it from my undisclosed location, so I didn't "officially" win. Kind of lame, but NaNo reminded me that I might actually have talent and imagination and be able to channel them somewhat productively. Which is cooler than any PDF winner's certificate (maybe). And maybe I'm on crack, but I actually think this slapshot first draft may be worth rewriting, and I've already started doing it while I still have a bit of free time.

As a bonus, NaNo helped me get over my law school ex, who was at first a fairly major character, but once I saw how douchey and one-dimensional and inferior to my made-up dramatis personae he looked on paper, I wrote him out of the story except as an occasional practical-joke victim.

So I'm supposed to start beauty school again on Thursday. Yeah, I'm psyched. I'll get to run with scissors, and play with chemicals, and make my new friends... all pretty!