I survived another NaNoWriMo: my seventh year hitting 50k, my fourth year as Municipal Liaison. I submitted my completed grammar final last night and the boyfriend and I are still on speaking terms.
I’ve even gotten a little bit of Christmas shopping done.
I am relieved and amazed I made it through the month. I’ve never had so much going on in November before. Not since the very first NaNo I signed up for in 2005, where I was finishing my second to last semester as an undergrad (taking 12 hours), working nearly full time hours at a job, and trying to put together grad school applications (which included studying for the GRE). That year I wrote roughly 1,000 words and then promptly and enthusiastically surrendered.
I wanted to do the same this year. Several times. There were stretches of two and three days were I didn’t go back to my novel, and some of those stretches I didn’t think I ever would.
But let me tell you something about being ML in a region like mine: I’m not alone. My Wrimos supported me as much as (if not more than) I supported them. I had two MLs, my best writing buddy, all of the Cafe members, a bunch of excited newbies, as well as a supportive boyfriend trying to juggle his own crazy schedule, who wouldn’t let me quit.
And so I had several days where I wrote six thousand words over the course of one day to get caught back up. The last night of NaNo this year I hunkered down at our write-in spot and cranked out four thousand words for the win. There were people cheering me on the whole way.
This is what I come back to every year with NaNo. Writing is a solitary thing. When it comes down to it, unless you’re co-authoring, you have to Write All of the Words yourself. Nobody else can write them for you.
But you don’t have to do it alone. NaNoWriMo gives writers a community so we don’t have to face the trials of being a writer without support. I probably wouldn’t still be writing today if it weren’t for that support network.
As far as my novel goes this year, it needs so much work that I can’t even face it right now. It’s going to the Novel Graveyard for now. Someday I might take another crack at it, but it’s unfinished and complete chaos right now. I finally discovered the theme of the story about 48,000 words into it, but I don’t have the energy to start over right now. I love the idea, and I love my characters, but it’s a project for another day. Or possibly another writer in another universe.
The End.
(since I didn’t get to write that in my novel this year)
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