A new year is usually filled with the same promises鈥攕top procrastinating, lose weight and quit whatever vice you鈥檙e still hooked on from last year鈥檚 resolution. However, this year Marta Rode is making a different promise to herself.
Already more than 50,000 words long, Rode is hoping to finish her first novel. The project came to fruition in November when a friend told her about National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), a global initiative that challenges all walks of life to start and complete a novel or pen 50,000 words during the month of November.
鈥淚 won in their terms because I got 50,000 words by the end of the month, but I鈥檓 nowhere near finished the actual story. Since the month ended I鈥檝e gone back to it a few times, but my mission this month is start again and put down 1,000 words a day,鈥� Rode said. 鈥淚 like the idea of sitting down once a day and putting some words down.鈥�
At first Rode thought she would write about her ups and downs with autoimmune disease, an illness that kills off healthy blood cells. However, before she knew it the words were practically falling out, diving into some of her earliest memories as a child in Bulgaria.
鈥淚t starts with me being a kid in communist Bulgaria and running away from there with my family and getting caught at the Austrian border and spending some time in jail when I was 10 before coming to Canada in 1977,鈥� she said.
When her novel is complete, Rode said she doesn鈥檛 know what will become of it.
鈥淢y 10-year-old is an avid writer and I thought at very worse when she鈥檚 older this is a really cool way for her to see what my life was like,鈥� she said.
Unlike Rode, fellow Jasperite Susan Szathmary missed NaNoWriMo鈥檚 goal by a few thousand words. However, she said the experience taught her a lot about her family鈥檚 history.
鈥淚 always wanted to write a book because I have ancestors that were published, and I made an assumption that I was genetically inclined to write,鈥� she said. 鈥淪o I thought why not write about these writers (in my family).鈥�
Szathmary got right to work on Nov. 1, spending hours researching, discovering several publications from three relatives and a long-lost cousin living in Calgary.
鈥淚 felt like Alice falling down the rabbit hole. My writing became unstructured and I sometimes wrote in circles, repeating myself,鈥� she said. 鈥淗owever, I鈥檓 not sad to say that I did not quite reach the goal of 50,000 words.鈥�
Szathmary closed her book on Nov. 27 and hasn鈥檛 opened it since.
While Szathmary isn鈥檛 sure if she鈥檒l compete in next November鈥檚 writing challenge, Rode said she鈥檚 hoping to start a new novel and will encourage her young daughter to join in on the experience.
Kayla Byrne
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