Nows and Forevers

One thing I’m going to miss in November is National Novel Writing Month. I’ve been doing it on and off for about 20 years. Even “won” it once or twice.

But we found out in April that NaNoWriMo is no more.

NaNoWriMo was simple and yet difficult, too: Spend the 30 days in November writing at least 50,000 words of a writing project. That works out to 1,667 words a day if you keep up with it. As a professional writer, I do that just about every day, including weekends. But it’s one thing to write for pay, it’s quite another for a passion project.

NaNoWriMo was a set discipline, a grand adventure. And just plain fun.

By this time of October, I would be having fun trying to figure out what I was going to commit November too. I liked the idea that as it got colder outside, I could spend time inside in front of my MacBook, writing my own stuff. And I kind of like word counts, too. They are good rituals. I don’t get hung up on them, but I’m not scared by them, either.

And I liked by the end of the month, if all went well, you had a good start on a project. True, 50,000 words doesn’t make a novel or even a novella. But it was a start, and I started a lot.

And I finished some, too.

I think another thing about NaNoWriMo was its community. I also know several people turned their national novel writing month projects into actual soul books. They were inspirations to me.

Now, I know what you’re thinking: You don’t have to have that month to write a book. That is true. I have written long before NaNoWriMo and I will write after it, too.

But it was fun, wasn’t it?