Choosing how to approach NaNoWriMo was a challenge in it’s own right. I seriously considered writing a novel or creating a series of prompt inspired short stories. Even writing a sort of diary.

I eventually decided that fiction stories might improve my fiction writing, but not necessarily my ability to communicate myself. It would certainly be a by-product, but not the primary development. And I don’t think I’m quite removed enough from middle-school yet to be a boy writing a diary. So blogging it was.

I then worried about finding enough distinct topics to write about. I started brainstorming in mid-october, jotting down quick notes for potential topics. Rather akin a squirrel hoarding acorns for winter. But just like a squirrel might lose its nuts, I’ve found my stored up ideas larely unhelpful. Instead, the seed of most posts have been random thoughts that popped in just before writing.

Perhaps I though too much about the stored up topics. So much so that they have become stale and uninteresting. Unembellished, they all lack the brightness of a fresh thought.

When I have used an old topic, my writing has gone in a different direction than originally intended. I do worry that without guidelines to follow I tend to meander back towards familiar ground. Too often I seem to be working towards some grand intellectual thought at the end of a post. In these instances I can almost hear my past teachers directing me to sum up all my thoughts. A nagging voice that has proved hard to ignore.

So maybe I need to write with even more freedom? Forget all the rules I’ve learned? It’s unclear. But either way, I would like to work on my endings.