Does everyone have a novel in them?

Yesterday I began my Nanowrimo 2015 challenge of writing 1667 words every day. I have to say it was a blast.  That's something of a relief because I obviously have 29 more days to go.

It was more fun than I anticipated. I have had these characters swimming about fuzzily in my head for the last few weeks. I have felt a fair bit of concern about what I would do with them when I finally started writing. Now I can happily report (yes, I know... its only day one!) that it is tremendously fun being the puppet master moving them about, controlling their every word and breath and relationship. Such power! You have to try it.

I met a lady at a local writers group who said she is always writing stories which contain versions of the people around her. She dealt with her marital breakup by throwing a fictional representation of her husband into a science fiction tale and wreaking merciless havoc upon him. I totally get it now. And that chap she had a set to with in the car park over a parking space? Met his doom in the chapter she wrote that night, of course.

They say everyone has a novel in them. For a long time I wondered if that was indeed true and worried that if I actually tried I might discover the answer to the question if I gave it a try. And not the answer I hoped for.

More optimistically though, there are those who say we do not have a novel in us. We actually have many many novels in us. Story telling is a natural thing all humans do. Sure some are better than others, but every one of us has recounted a past event or experience. Every one of us has already told many a tale.  The rest is deliberate practice.

I can't think of a more encouraging way to start than with hundreds of thousands of other people all over the world this November.

Whether for fun, catharsis or the simple joy of tap, tap, tapping away at a keyboard , you might want to give writing a try.  As Stephen King says,

You can, you should, and if you are brave enough to start, you will.