Write on Wednesday - Marathon

This is my first Write on Wednesday post.

The question is:
So, how about you? If you’ve done NaNoWriMo, what was the experience like for you? If you’ve never done it, do you think you could? Do you have a novel residing in you somewhere, waiting to get out?

This will be my 5th Nano! It's hard to believe I've done it that many times and I've won each year I've participated. I love the mad-dash writing, the creative ideas that flow when I least expect it, the horribly bad sentences that make me laugh out loud, the thrill of finishing 50,000 words, the characters and story lines that not only entertain me for 30 days, but stick with me forever.

My first Nano novel was also the first time I'd ever tried writing fiction, unless you count the pathetic attempt in high school English class and I don't count that attempt because it was embarassing and frustrating! I spent the month of October coming up with some characters and a plot and note-carding possible scenes. I wrote each of those note card into scenes, plus added more to get to 50,000 words.

Story in a sentence: Working at the library while raising her younger sister after the death of their mother, Sharla befriends a lonely, old widower who gives her an amazing gift.

For my second Nano novel I did similar prep work, but a bit less than the first year.

Story in a sentence (or 2): In Everybody Eats at Mina's, Mina's restaurant has been closed for years, but she continued to feed people in the neighborhood until her building was threatened by new development. Helped by a local pastor, a young woman on her own and not long out of foster care and a recovering drug addict Mina works to re-open her restaurant and save the building where she works and lives.

My third Nano sent me into a mind block for ideas. I know that it is not advised to work on a story that you've been working on because you'll care too much about it to hack it up for Nano. Well, I ignored that advice a bit. I'd done a short story that I really thought I could turn into a novel and decided to do that for this Nano. I had mixed results. I still like the characters and still want to work it into a novel, but it also seems doomed. I've worked on it more than any other story but... it just won't gel for me yet.

Story in a sentence: Elvis Presley Walker has left her life in Bug Tussle, KY for Lexington and a new career, never mentioning to her friends or fiance what her life was like before, but when her mom calls to tell her Memaw is dying will Presley (as she's now known) go home and make peace with her past?

Last year was my fourth Nano. I forced myself to come up with characters and a plot idea just a few days before Nov. 1. It worked out and I liked the story.

Story in a sentence: Single mom, Marla loses the job that provides for her teenage son and herself and now faces homelessness, until Pastor Sparks defies his son's desire to put him in an assisted living facility and invites Marla and her son to move in with him and care for him. Can they all find a future together?

This year: I have no idea what I'm going to write about!! Time's a-wasting! I've got to go get me some characters and a problem or two for them.