All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost; The old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the frost. From the ashes a fire shall be woken, A light from the shadows shall spring; Renewed shall be blade that was broken, The crownless again shall be king. – J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of The Ring
I’m happy to say that I finished the NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) challenge at just a little over 50,000 words. And in the process of pushing myself to the finish I learned a lot about writing.
I’m using what I learned to edit one of my old manuscripts and applying it to the current work in progress. But the intense writing focus of NaNoWriMo has also given me a lot to think about.
I didn’t blog much during November or work on my etsy shop and, while I did manage to get to Mass and say the Rosary most mornings, my focus on my home, other devotions and Catholic studies slipped. So, while I do want to keep writing at my previous pace, I’m not sure that doing NaNoWriMo again is a good idea for me.
The other issue that came up is the conflict I’m feeling about writing any kind of popular fiction. Before I came back to the Church I had no issues. Now, I sometimes feel that I’m writing things that conflict with my Catholic faith.
This is not to say that Catholic authors can’t write genre fiction because, of course, they can. J.R.R. Tolkien managed it. And lots of people in the Catholic Writers Guild seem to be managing it too.
So maybe I’m over complicating it.
I may just need to read more Catholic fiction. And will be addressing it in prayer, as well
