NaNoWriMo Winner
12/05/2022
I did it! I won NaNoWriMo while I was away. The total wordcount of my novel at the moment is 52,272. I'm definitely nowhere near finished, and I really enjoyed pushing myself to keep going on this project and make the most of it. I'm looking forward to spending December with family and relaxing, and then picking back up on the book come January, unless I wind up with a lot of inspiration before that.
I spent a little over two weeks with my family, which is why I was away for so long. I had plenty of fun, most of it was just hanging out and watching television with my grandmother. I enjoy spending time with her, the two of us doing our own things while we sit in the same room. Towards the end of my visit, my grandparents and I went to a shelter and adopted a very sweet dog that I'm extremely excited to go see again when we visit for the holidays. The shelter still needed to get him fixed, so he's coming home to their house in a few days. I'm planning on buying a frisbee for the dog soon, to bring as his first Christmas gift.
On the way home, my mother and I spent the car ride talking. Normally, we sit in silence, with me listening to music and her to an audiobook, but I suppose we both got too interested in conversation not to keep going for the ride. It was nice, actually. We hopped from topic to topic, from concepts of faith and mysticism, witchcraft, regional beliefs/superstitions, and oral history. Our region is a very important part of our identity, as it pertains to how we perceive the world and interact with it as a whole. Even as the world becomes more unified, it's still important for us to hang on to our identities and the parts of our upbringings which fulfill us and cause no harm. We talked about authors from our region, musicians, artists, and how their work was influenced by growing up where we did. It's interesting to see how one's own manners of speech can be such a tell of where they're from, and how even the surroundings you grow up around influence your writing, your art, your speech, the way you perceive people and places, the comfort you feel in cities or in rural areas or in suburbian sprawls. I find it all fairly fascinating.
I've also begun listening to Ethel Cain. I'm very into her work, as her music and overall aesthetic reflect what parts of the inside of my mind probably look like. The wood-paneled walls and slowly peeling wallpapers, the wooden and stained glass crosses hanging up on the wall, curtains made of blankets, beds on the floor, and the cold seeping through the tiniest gaps in the windows. The feeling of freedom in the wind and the further constricting of the places you grew up, the way that your home town tends to choke you until you can't feel your hands. That sensation of running from it all, only to wind up right back where you started in your mad dash through the barren trees. The flicker of orange streetlamps outside a busy, wood-building bar, the empty road where you spot a hare crossing, tall grass tickling at your legs and reaching up past your knees. That's how Ethel Cain's music feels to me, at least. My favorite track right now is "Family Tree". I guess that says enough.
I hope everyone's taking care and staying warm in these cold months, or cool in your warm months, for the southern hemisphere. Be well.