Happy to fail

Time is a funny thing, which probably explains the number of books about time travelling and time machines. It’s the way time crawls before something exciting happens. Anticipation is a lovely thing in my eyes, which made it so baffling when our children first arrived. There was no anticipation. None. No excited little faces before birthdays (also no four o’clock wakeup visits to check if it was their birthday yet!), no list-making before St Nicholas or Christmas.

Over time, my children have all learned the art of anticipation, with varying levels of anxiety alongside it. Especially during the last couple of years, when predictability and control are up in the air, joyful anticipation has shrunk and is back to a wistful, “Who knows, we might be able to meet friends.”

It will be November in a few days, and I’m excited as ever. It’s time for NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month. The aim is to write 50,000 words in November. I have taken part the last few years and always made it. This year, I’m not so sure. I have a novel I want to work on, but as I’m writing this, I’m still finishing a draft that was meant to finish in March. Somehow I have been reading too many review books, spent too much time on other things and not enough writing got done. I still have a few days before November though, and I’m on the last chapters. I think.

All I need is a quiet corner in Dundee... How hard can it be?

My other excuse for my likely failure this November is that I’m speaking at the Brechin/Angus Book Festival near Dundee. I’ll be swanning all over Dundee with other incredible writers, entertaining the kids when not at book signings, and writing somewhere in between. Part of me thinks it’ll be fine and I will manage to do lots of writing, but reality is peeking around the corner of my diary, pointing at the list with book reviews down for November, my star chart for my NaNo and on top of that, there will be some real live people around to talk to.

That’s the lovely thing about NaNoWriMo, so I’m happy to fail, as it’s literally about taking part. Knowing there are so many others writing away every day, organising sprint sessions where you can write together and just sharing about your writing is what it’s all about for me. So I’m happy to fail this year, although I will still try to make it as I’m excited about my new project, the third book in the Elabi Chronicles.

It also depends on how you see your writing and for me, it’s a time to think about questions, about life issues and walking with God, so there is never an option to fail in there. There is just anticipation when it comes to daydreaming on paper, letting my mind ramble on and finding myself blessed in so many different ways by telling somebody else’s story. There is an ACW NaNoWriMo group if you’re interested in joining us and giving it a shot this year, and I'll post the link on the Book of Faces group.

 

 Maressa Mortimer is Dutch but lives in the beautiful Cotswolds, England with her husband and four (adopted) children. Maressa is a homeschool mum as well as a pastor’s wife, so her writing has to be done in the evening when peace and quiet descend on the house once more. She loves writing Christian fiction, as it’s a great way to explore faith in daily life. Because of her interest in writing, Maressa is part of Creativity Matters: Find Your Passion For Writing, an anthology encouraging people to write.

Her debut novel, Sapphire Beach, was published in December 2019, and her first self published novel, Walled City, came out in December 2020, followed by Viking Ferry, a novella. Beyond the Hills is the second book in the Elabi Chronicles, and was released on June 18^th 2021. All of Maressa’s books are available from her website, www.vicarioushome.com, Amazon or local bookshops.