When I was in college, I worked at an independent bookstore in Fort Collins (that sadly went out of business a few years ago). One chilly day, I was working in the cafe, making drinks for several people sharing a table with their laptops out. I asked them what they were doing, and they told me about National Novel Writing Month. I was in my last semester of my undergrad program, and pretty swamped with applying to graduate school, but I filed NaNoWriMo away under "Things I'd like to do someday."
And then I got married, and started grad school, and had a kid, all in a twelve month period. I was busier than I ever have been in my life. And I forgot about NaNoWriMo.
Then I finished grad school, and became a full-time stay-at-home mom. My husband decided to go for a second bachelor's degree and pursue an opportunity to work for our church's education system while working the 7pm-7am shift as an emergency department admitter three nights a week. I think that was probably the busiest he's ever been in his life.
I got pregnant again during that time, which for me means horrible nausea and vomiting. My husband was gone all the time, my one-year-old was running me ragged, I couldn't keep food down... it was a mess. And then at the beginning of October, we lost the baby. So while my poor husband tried to keep us afloat, I was mostly alone every night, suddenly not sick to death, and very, very sad.
On the 31st of October, a friend announced on Facebook that he was starting NaNoWriMo the next day. I remembered the people from the bookstore cafe, and how much I had wanted to join in at the time. My husband was at work, so I signed up for NaNo and spent the rest of the night jotting down some ideas for a novel. And on November 1st, I went for it.
Spending each night writing while my son slept and my husband worked was amazingly cathartic for me. Having something to look forward to every night helped ease me through my grief. There was also a great community of NaNo writers for me to talk to--I'd never had any friends interested in writing before. When I emerged victorious on November 30th, my husband threw a party for me with several of our friends where I got to read some of my book to them. I felt special again, not just an object of people's pity.
That sense of purpose and feeling of community is a huge part of why I keep coming back to NaNoWriMo every November. It's why I love the Twitter community of writers and other publishing professionals, and why I enjoy contributing to Operation Awesome.
Why do you NaNo?
What a neat story! We all know writing is cathartic, but we usually think of writing out our emotions. Writing *anything* releases a lot of the stuff we ball up inside - thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteI NaNo only occasionally now - the last few Novembers have come during editing deadlines or a new book release. But when I do, I do it for the energy that the social movement pulls out of me, and for the push-to-deadline that I respond to. It's just plain fun to be part of something bigger than me.
I only joined NaNo once. I cranked out about 20,000 words and was exhausted. I admire anyone who can stick it out and actually produce something. I admire you for doing it to at a very sad time of your life.
ReplyDeleteI like doing NaNo because it's fun to have the same goal as so many other people.
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