A Wonderful Madness

So, another NaNoWriMo ends. The annual madness is over once again. Another 12 months before it returns. Everything feels different when the madness of NaNo ends.

I didn't get a win this year. I didn't reach 6000 words, in fact. However, I'm fine with it. The last three years have been pretty rough for me and last year, the surgery meant I couldn't even participate as ML or in writing. This year, I had pain problems and illness to keep me down. The truth is that I accept all of this as the universe telling me it is time to stop.

So, this is my last NaNo as municipal liaison. I attended the TGIO on Sunday afternoon to say goodby to the group. I'm glad I did because it was nice to be able to hug them and tell them how very much they meant to me. Not everyone was there and I'd already sent out a regional message informing everyone but getting to see some of them one last time was so nice. Gary McDaniel was there, and as I listened to him talking I realized that when he started he was only 15. Now he was a few years into college! It was awesome. I was so pleased he's stuck with it.

There were others that I could remember when I first met them. DeWayne, Diane, LaGina were long time NaNoWriMos. They became more than my NaNo participants. They became friends!

I started in 2006 when there were six people and no Municipal Liaison. My first year wasn't really much fun because I had no clue and I was pretty invisible. By 2009 we'd grown to 30 people and I had met some great people. In 2010, I became ML and it was so much fun planning and attending the meetings and writing with other participants.

Now, it's time to leave it to others. I was going to do it last year but couldn't bear to give up. It kept me going through the holidays and I could focus on other people rather than my own miseries. This year, I'm so relieved there is a competent person taking the reins and 8 years of hard work won't be lost.

I'm relieved it is over. But I will miss it. I will miss my writers. Gary ask me if I was no longer going to participate as a writer. My response: No. I'm done with that, too. I have 8 novels unfinished on my computer and NaNo is not conducive to finishing novels. You get a really good start but before you can finish it, you're starting to prep for the next one. As an ML, it is even harder. So, at this point, I have no plans to do NaNo again. I'll keep writing. I might go into the site and encourage everyone and see how they're progressing. I'll see the madness but for me, I think I'm over the madness.

Every writer should do NaNo once. See what you're made of. If you're published already, you may already have that answer but if you're still trying to hit that milestone, then do NaNo once. Get the bare bones of the story done and then, work on it. Do it for the madness of it. Do it to learn what kind of writer you are and what motivates you. Can you write under pressure? Does that looming deadline push you forward? Can you sacrifice things you want to do in order to write? NaNo will teach you that.

So, I say "Adieu NaNoWriMo." It was a wonderful madness.