I’ve done it! I’ve tackled my writers block and come out on top. At least, so far. Thanks to a great start at my very first Camp Nanowrimo novel, Bipolar In Order.

I wrote 6,500+ words in two days, staying in line with the NaNoWriMo schedule despite starting two days late. I haven’t written in a burst like that in months, not once since I moved to Boston, and I can tell you it feels amazing. It feels like stress relief, emotional release. It’s physically tiring, even! I sleep better when I’m a writer, I breath more easily, I feel like myself.

The novel/short story collection is something different for me. I’m writing it as nearly 100% autobiography. This makes it more difficult than other pieces of prose or poetry to share (it’s so much easier when you change the names and claim fiction!), though I find it also makes it easier to write. Dealing with emotional scarred tissue is sluggish, even dreadful, but you also never have want for material. And so, I’ll be bringing you slightly censored excerpts and quotes throughuot the month (there will be even more at my tumblr, my dumping ground for all things shiny and interesting).

…with lips so full you wanted to chew on them and drink up their juice like you do with a plum, and they were nearly, naturally, that delicious dark red of plums…

It’s interesting to find yourself stopping in the middle of a thought – a story line – to remember the way a friend’s mouth curved the first time you saw them smile. Or how someone’s voice sounded when you were half asleep, smushed up against the ceiling of your dorm because you’re in a loft bed and the angle changes how you hear things. I love remembering quiet moments, personal moments, lonely moments, and I love writing about the crazier ones, too, the nights you can’t hardly remember and raging debates that leave your voice hoarse from shouting and laughter.

What do you think? The challenge of (completely) honest writing is difficult, and is draining, but it feels so worth the turmoil just be churning out words again. How do you bust the block? Are any of you out there hitting up July’s session of Camp Nanowrimo? (There’s another in August if you want to wait a couple more weeks!) Let’s get a real discussion going this month, all about writing, emotional literacy, intimacy with your audience, and of course, absolutely ridiculous online challenges that take over our brains and lives.