NaNoWriMo

I'm doing it. NaNoWriMo - National Novel Writing Month, taking place during the month of November. (details: http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/whatisnano)

It's a minimum of 50,000 words in a month - doable if you've ever been a grad student; in fact, you've probably been right on track to do this if you've ever done the classic "write-a-million-pages-right-before-the-deadline" move.

Though meant for fiction, I'm using it to bang out something on the grand Lithuania project, and so it will probably remain nonfiction - specifically, creative nonfiction.

Before you ask one of my least favorite questions ("So, hahahah, 'creative nonfiction' - does that mean you get to make stuff up? You get to lie?! Hahahahah"), let me explain that creative nonfiction is still nonfiction, as in, you don't present anything as truth that is not truth/what happened. It is simply a creative, story-telling way of presenting the true story. It often reads like a novel, yet happens to be true.

Yes, memory is a faulty thing. Yes, people have different versions of the truth. The point is that you write what you believe to be authentic, with the knowledge that someone else my write it differently and the knowledge that you will shape the story that you want to tell. But you can't make stuff up (without saying so).

Could be a memoir, could be the story of a historical event, among other things. It is different from "straight" journalism. (Although, literary journalism - a la Joan Didion - is creative nonfiction, but again, that's different from straight journalism. And you likely know it when you're reading it.)

So, as promised lo those many months ago, I will be filling in more details about my time in Lithuania and some historical details I find fascinating. (Don't worry - I won't be using words like "lo.")

No, really. It'll happen this time.