My NaNoWriMo journey - so far...

 Once upon a time a long, long time ago…

No, wait; maybe it wasn’t such a terribly long time ago.  But in some ways it feels like a different world.  A different lifetime.

I had been thinking I might like to be a writer, but had absolutely no idea how to make that happen.  And then we found ourselves having dinner with a writer and his wife.  I remember being enamored by the fact that I even knew someone who was a writer!  As we enjoyed a nice dinner and got better acquainted, I found myself asking if he had any advice about how to become a writer.  

He asked me a couple good questions that would serve to help me clarify my thinking and he gave me a few basic pointers - which were quite helpful to me at that time and since.

One of his tips was to tell me about this crazy opportunity to write a book in a month.  I didn’t understand much of how it worked but got enough info to eventually be able to connect with NaNoWriMo.  

I learned that November is National Novel Writing Month - a time when hundreds and thousands of people around the world push themselves to crank out 50,000 words during those 30 days.   

That was the fall of 2010 when I got signed up to give it a try.  Turns out there is only one rule really.  You write 50,000 words during the month to get a certificate declaring you a NaNo winner.  I had no idea if I was capable of cranking out that many words - altho’ my wordiness is pretty common knowledge.

You can guess the answer; otherwise I probably wouldn’t be telling the story; right? 

Yep, I cranked out well over 50K…  and felt pretty accomplished.  Never mind that the document may never again see the light of day.  It was writing practice and it was even kinda’ fun.

So I did it again the next year… and the next…

From that very first time, I had adopted that one rule…  to make the word count goal.  50K translates to about 1667 words/day so I usually go for 2000… overachiever that I am… or wish to be.  Really that is just because I know that I need to have a cushion because I do not want to take a chance of falling behind!

Eventually I added my own second rule: have fun with this thing!  It wasn’t until a few years later that I began to think this might possibly lead to me writing a real book.

That was more than a decade ago.  Then in 2020, in the midst of a pandemic, I completed my 11th NaNo project and in 2021 published it.

In the meantime, we moved to a new place where it has been my great privilege to meet several more published authors and to count them among my new friends.

So now… after completing NaNoWriMo a dozen times… today, November 1, 2022, I have begun yet another time.  I got up early this morning and I cranked out 2232 words.  I even have a theme and a plan and an outline…  and a teensy bit of hope that I might end up with another book - after many, many months of work.

It’s NaNo time…  and we’re off and running!!!  Er… um… I mean typing!