Moodling.

It’s a delicious, roll-around-the-mouth word, and I offer profuse thanks to Yvie, one of our new Island Writers members, for adding it to my vocabulary!

So, what is moodling? Put simply, it means mulling over ideas and jotting down anything which comes to mind. Unlike brainstorming, this relaxed thought process frees the mind to come up with unfocused inspirations on a range of topics – we can worry about what to use them for later.

But after years of moodling, Yvie has decided to use some of the many ideas she’s generated and take up the huge challenge of NaNoWriMo – the National Novel Writing Month. The idea is to write a 50,000-word novel during the month of November.

Excuse me – write a whole novel in just 30 days?

Yup. That’s the challenge. 1667 words, every day for a whole month. Gulp. And only about 10% – 15% of participants make it – but even for the majority who don’t quite succeed in finishing during the time limit, it’s a fabulous spur to achieve a major chunk of that novel they’ve been moodling over for years.

Yvie’s latest blog update says she’s already written 20,000 words, so she has a good chance of making it past the halfway mark, at least. That’s a lot more than I’ve written all year!

Over 400,000 writers tried their hand at NaNoWriMo last year. So, why don’t they all keep on target? (Apart from, of course, that it’s nearly impossible?)

Yvie’s found one answer: creative writing hurts. Writing – good writing – is an emotional affair. Creating a novel based on past experiences can mean reliving heart-wrenching emotions we thought we’d locked away forever. Some days it feels like peeling off your skin to let outsiders look underneath. Fortunately, if you love writing, it’s worth it.

So we can only wish her luck – and leave some supportive words on her blog to help her along.

Want to try NaNoWriMo?

With just a few days to go until the end of November, we’re too late to join Yvie this time, but if you’d like to try completing a writing project in one month and you don’t want to wait until next November, check out Camp NanoWriMo – it looks fun!

Meanwhile, I intend to moodle as often as possible. Preferably while munching my way through a tub of Cadbury’s Roses. That’s the kind of emotional experience I can really go for.