NaNoWriMo is finished for another year, now what? 

According to the National Novel Writing Month website, as of November 30, 2024, I have completed the challenge of writing a 50,000 word novel eleven times. What am I getting out of this exercise? Why am I doing this to myself and my loved ones?  

First, a little background. In 2008, I read a book called No Plot, No Problem by Chris Baty which was about the start of NaNoWriMo as it came to be known, and he outlined a week-to-week plan to complete what seemed an incredible feat to me. I decided that the time had come, I was finally going to get down to it and write a novel. Prior to this experience, I had written some longish term papers in university but nothing over 10,000 words. How hard could it be? 

Turns out, very hard. But I pushed myself to finish and it felt like an incredible accomplishment to see the “winner” graphic across my laptop screen. There have been several years where life circumstances intervened, and I didn’t participate or didn’t finish but now it is part of my yearly schedule to plan on writing for the month of November. I have taken time off the last couple of years during the month which has made it much easier and less stressful to reach my goal.  

As a child, I dreamt of being a writer, keeping copious journals and as I got older, I desperately wanted to be a writer but was too embarrassed and self-conscious to give voice to this dream. I somehow absorbed a message that it wasn’t a serious job, and I had no training apart from first year English in university.  

I referred to myself as a “writer” using air quotes after the first NaNoWriMo and I have a distinct memory of a friend saying, “why are you using air quotes? You are a writer.” I felt a change in that moment, he was right, why was I always talking about my writing in a self-deprecating manner? 

As I’ve expressed here before, I have no trouble with first drafts and have a million ideas to write about but it’s the editing and getting to the second and subsequent drafts that are my downfall. Why do I keep writing new stories? What compels me to spend so much time on something when I’m not taking steps to do something with all my previous work?  

Several reasons come to mind. Even though it’s a challenging endeavour, the aspects I enjoy the most are creating stories that serve two main purposes, that of entertainment and of catharsis. I write them to entertain myself and through the process, invariably discover that I’m working through some unexpressed emotion. Although sometimes uncomfortable, more often the experience is one of catharsis and over the course of a few NaNoWriMos, I have discovered that it is safe place to release the valve on feelings of rage and anger.

I keep trying to write a cozy mystery or a romcom because these are my favourite genres, instead what comes out is murder and mayhem. This time, though, I feel like the story that developed as the November weeks went by was more interesting and less cynical. I am learning what a story arc looks like and am getting closer to creating a work that is more like the books I enjoy reading and less like incoherent diatribes with dead bodies. And it only took nearly fifteen years and 600,000 words! 

As always, a huge thank you to the DeadLies for all their kind support through the years and especially MG Sondraal for organizing our daily Zoom writing sessions. She has participated in NaNoWriMo along with me for years even though she hates arbitrary word counts and doesn’t need deadlines to finish her work.  

Yours in gratitude,

DMK Ruby