NaNoWriMo Reaches The End!

I remember the first time I read about National Novel Writing Month--NaNoWriMo to those in the know. The contest wasn't brand new. It had already run for several years. Nevertheless, I was excited. It seemed like an amazing opportunity to do what I loved most--writing--and to be part of a community with like-minded people. I threw together a profile and a rough idea of what I was going to write, since it was almost November, and drafted a brief synopsis. It was the best I could do on short notice. I stocked up on caffeinated beverages, microwavable food for meals, and I was good to go. I remember that I failed, utterly, finishing barely 25,000 of the 50,000 words to "win."

You'd think that I'd have been disappointed, but I was not. I vowed to do better the following year--and I did--although I still came up short. Regardless of all of the disappointment, I could feel myself growing as a writer. I was developing a flow and a feel for long fiction, which was not my first "language." Until starting to participate in NaNoWriMo, I'd limited myself to short stories and nonfiction pieces for school and for various animal-related outlets. Writing long fiction was an entirely new experience. I expected more failures than successes. I had no idea what I was doing, but I learned a lot by doing . . . something.

The summer prior to the 2005 NaNoWriMo contest, I happened upon a book titled "The Marshall Plan for Novel Writing." I dutifully printed up reams of character sheets, section sheets, and who-know-what-else sheets. I filled out a character sheet for every major character, followed the formula for POV characters, agonized over weaving storylines together and bringing all to a denouement. It was hard, hard work. And it paid off. I finally finished with over 52,000 words! I couldn't have been prouder than if I'd landed a publishing contract. I did the same the following year for a sequel of sorts and was proud to say that I finished a second time. In following years I modified the Plan as needed for my life at the time and had varying degrees of success. Last year, which turned out to be the final year, I had a very sketchy plan at the beginning of the month, which turned into a free-for-all mania of Words That Work To Finish kind of deal. I was hoping to use this year's contest to pull everything together in the sequel, getting my protagonist home at last.

So, here's what I could have done. I could have said, "I will sit down in November and pretend that I'm doing NaNoWriMo." Then I could have written my tailbone off, competing with all of the other bereft Wrimos who are probably doing the same thing. But no, that would have been too easy. Sad to say, I know me. (No, really, I do. Sometimes I just lie to myself to get me to shut up about things.) I would have said, "there's no deadline to finish words today. I'll just double my goal tomorrow." I'd probably finish with about 10,000 words, maybe. I mean, in November, when it's cold and I work at venison all day and chores and cleaning kennels, the last thing I want to do is sit down and write 1667 words of a rough draft that only I will probably end up reading. There are a number of alternatives to NaNoWriMo that I'm still investigating. As long as they don't require the use of Discord and keep me on the straight and narrow, I'm willing to look into them. (Nothing against Discord. I do use it sometimes. I just find their platform to be difficult.)

In all honesty, it was time for NaNoWriMo to go. They started down the primrose path due to an unfortunate municipal liaison (ML), continued skipping merrily along it through inaction and other issues, then somehow the path turned into the desert and they went "Thelma & Louise" off the AI cliff. Many articles have been written about their downfall, so I won't waste my keystrokes here rehashing it. However, I would have been just as happy if they'd stopped having the community boards and limped along for another year or two, while I prepared myself mentally. I don't do change well and I've spent more time denying that I have to get ready for this fall rather than actually researching an alternative. Welcome to my world, where procrastination reigns.

So far, I've found a couple of groups that seem to tick the right boxes. I know that I'll try one or two, take a swing and a miss, but that's okay. It will be like growing into long fiction all over again, finding a new platform and a new community that will help me stretch and grow. I know that a lot of writers, people like me who have become entrenched in the old, are finding themselves in the same boat. I'm certain that setting sail on new adventures will be worth it in the long run.

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As always, I welcome comments on what I've written. If you are a writer and have a great suggestion for a new writathon for me, please feel free to let me know. Take care, everyone, and I hope to hear from you soon!