No More National Novel Writing Month

For many years now, in November, I would write 50,000 plus words for National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). Each day, I would write. It wasn't important to edit as I wrote, because I knew in a month or two it would be time to edit. 

Then I would print a draft copy to continue to add to and edit again, and I would print a draft copy for an annual fundraiser or two. I believed at some point I would be ready to publish. At the end of last year, I received a grant to write a book. Is this the time, I thought?

Well, I am hoping so. This November, with or without NaNoWriMo, I plan to write 50,000 words. Some are other elders' words, as I have interviewed five Native American women elders to date. 

After five days, I have written 8,207 words for my month of November, or in remembrance of NaNoWriMo. I am on track! Maybe 600 or so words less than my goal, but today isn't over just yet.

When going back through some things I have already written, there are updates to include and, of course, edits. It has been difficult to write what I expected, along with appointments, work, family commitments, and my daily publishing of stories on Vocal Media and medium.com.

Today, I asked the grant program to send me a form to request a change or two to my existing grant. I'm not sure it is a good idea to interview ten women. My book is looking pretty busy already! I think maybe a few more, but fewer than ten.

Then I will have a lot to say about the interviews, also. I will answer the questions I put out for the elders to answer, and I will talk about the process of the interviews, what I was looking for, and what was really talked about. 

And then, there was some process time that wasn't recorded, as there were tears, and time for processing what the tears were about. Most tears appeared unexpected to the interviewee. When you have been in recovery for 40+ years, it is easy to think that you have processed all that needs to be processed in that time.

In other words, my therapist hat came on during a couple of the interviews. I have worked in substance abuse and mental health since 1984. I continue to run a weekly group. I took most of the summer and now fall off as a snowbird friend of mine stepped up to do the group. 

She leaves at the end of the month now, so my break time is up. She says she will look forward to continuing the groups when she is back. I think this just may be workable. I have noticed that when I am not working, the therapist hat can come out of nowhere.

I have written around 350,000 words with NaNoWriMo in the month of November, and in the summer camp program they have had each year for several years now. 

Most of those draft copies of the books have been self-published and sold as a fundraising item or given as a gift at Christmas time, and a few were sold at a couple of local art centers.

The Day the Deer Ran Wild was the book from November 2024. I wrote a book about Cancer, Diabetes, Anishinabe Culture, and the Ojibwe Language, The Life and Times of John William Lindquist, and others. I even wrote a fiction book, which was lost when my computer crashed.

It was not to be a best seller after all. Not really! I was just pleased that I had written a book of fiction. I hope to continue with the National Novel Writing Month for the rest of my life, or as long as I am able, even without the actually site to record my word count for the day.