A few months ago, I made a hard choice. Over time this difficult decision solidified and grew and turned into something exciting. And I realized it’s okay to let go of things, GOOD even, because often letting go makes way for new, better things.

If you’ve known me for any time at all, you probably know I’ve been obsessed with NaNoWriMo for many, many years. NaNo a.k.a. National Novel Writing Month, is a challenge that takes place every November to write a 50k word novel within 30 days. Absolutely crazy, yes. Exhausting, definitely yes. Worth it? 100%

The first time I did NaNo was in 2010. I was just 18 at the time and had enjoyed writing most of my life, but I always took it so casually. But then I did NaNo. And I wrote an entire book faster than I had ever done before. And I LOVED IT. It was from that point on that I knew being a writer was really, truly what I wanted. Stories fired up my soul, and I couldn’t imagine doing anything else.

That is when I started a blog. When I made other writing friends, something I never had before. When I began really digging into the craft. And I wrote and wrote and wrote. I partook in NaNo every single year for 12 years in a row. During those years I created so many stories I loved and learned immeasurably about what it is to craft a story.

It has been a beautiful 12 years of wildly writing words as every November 1st rolls around. But all things must come to an end eventually.

The End of One Thing…

For the past few years, the NaNo program has become more and more political. What started as a friendly challenge for all writers has slowly morphed into a space for people to shove their political beliefs down your throats and shun you if you don’t agree.

I was putting up with it for a while because it’s been years since I’ve even bothered taking time in the NaNo forums or being super active in the community. I just liked using the program and doing NaNo with my close writing pals.

But it was when NaNoWriMo sent an email to all their subscribers about something that had nothing to do with writing in any form or fashion and was a stand for a topic so left field and sickening, that I just couldn’t anymore. I have a pretty high tolerance for things and am not a political person at all, but there are certain issues I have to draw the line on.

What’s more, just the way NaNo is handled these days drives me to distraction. If you’re a business, brand, or program, you are supposed to stay within your brand. That’s super basic and obvious marketing, right? And yet these days no one seems to be doing it?? If you’re a writing program, stay in your lane and stick to branding about writing. Using your program as a thinly veiled place to shove your beliefs at people is not good marketing and is going to lose you a lot of participants.

Now, I highly believe in being able to express ourselves and our beliefs. If the individual people on the NaNoWriMo team want to use their personal social media and newsletters and what-have-you to share their opinions, they’re well within their right. But using the entire program for such things and barely even talking about writing anymore? That’s just a bad way to run a program. It exhausts me.

Which is why I’ve had to make a hard decision: I won’t be doing NaNoWriMo anymore.

As someone who at one point firmly believed she’d be doing NaNo nearly every year for the rest of her life, it feels wild publicly announcing such a thing. But sometimes we have to let things go, and for me right now, NaNo is one of those things.

But let me to take a moment to make something exceedingly clear: I do not judge a single soul who is still participating in NaNo. This is an extremely personal decision for me. As I said, I was just getting tired of how the program is being run, and life is too short to keep doing things that bring us annoyance. But if it still works for you, by all means, do it! In fact, if they ever change back to being a more welcoming place for all writers and actually focus on, you know, writing, I may return to it myself. But for now, I need to put some space between it and me.

It’s hard, saying goodbye. I wouldn’t be where I am today if not for NaNo. It quite literally changed my world, and for that, I will be eternally grateful to it. But hey, 12 years seems like a good number to leave with. A full dozen. It’s been good.

BUT. There’s more goodness to come…

…the Beginning of Another

You know how I said sometimes you have to let things go to make room for better things? WELL. Just because I’m not doing the official NaNo program anymore does not, in any fashion, mean I won’t still be writing an entire 100k+ word book in a fit of caffeine-induced madness this fall. Once you’ve done something every single Autumn for 12 years, it’s kind of hard to just stop.

You see, for many years now, NaNo is the only time I ever write full first drafts. During the other months of the year, I’m usually editing or querying or doing those “other” writerly things that aren’t first drafting. But I have such an endless source of plot bunnies in my head that demand to be released lest I lose my sanity (or, at least, lose more of it than is already gone). NaNo was always the one time I could set aside all those “other” things and get one of those many, many novel ideas OUT. And I don’t want to stop that. I NEED that motivation and challenge to kick me into actually writing entire books.

So I’ve decided to do my own personal NaNo.

Once I finally made the decision to not do NaNo anymore, I then had to think about what that would look like. Should I still try to write a whole book in November? But that drive wouldn’t be there without NaNo to keep me accountable. There’s something so very motivating about knowing you’re doing a crazy writing challenge with so many others around the world. It’s a surreal experience that I have always held dear.

But I’ve also always, if I’m being honest, hated the timing of NaNo. I mean, during November? Short of December, that seems like the most inconvenient month out of the whole year to lock ourselves away in our writing holes. I do love it being in the fall. That crisp, cool air awakens my spirit and inspires me to write. But right during the month of Thanksgiving and the Christmas season rolling in makes it HARD.

And thus I am creating my own little challenge, similar to NaNo but with a bit different timing.

This year, instead of NaNo, I’m going to try to write a whole book starting on October 15th and going through November 15th.

This way, I’m still within that NaNo time zone sphere to borrow off of its excitement and motivation, but will hopefully not run into Thanksgiving or December. I often end up continuing to write my book after NaNo if I wasn’t able to finish it which means writing through some of December. I always hate when I have to do that. So with this goal, even if I may still have to write a bit past that November 15th end goal, hopefully I can at least be done before December arrives.

BUT WAIT. THERE’S MORE.

An Invitation

As I said, there is something surreal about NaNo. About knowing you’re not alone. You’re right there along with so many others pounding away at your keyboards, chugging down the coffee, and creating, one word at a time. It is magical, motivating, and inspiring.

And so I wanted to extend an invitation for you to join me in this challenge.

I want to keep things simple this year. Should it take off, I may try to grow it as time goes on. But for now, my thoughts are simply to create a Discord server for anyone who wants to join where we can chat about writing, cheer each other on, do wordsprints, and all those delightful writerly things. It would be like a mini NaNo forum.

If you want to join my writing challenge starting from October 15th to November 15th and join the Discord server, simply toss me an email @ Lauriloth(at)gmail(dot)com and let me know! I will happily add you to the list.

As of right now, I’ve not gotten the Discord server off the ground. I’ll do that closer to the actual challenge date. But it would help to see who all would be interested, so if you are, do please email me!

AND if you are doing official NaNoWriMo but still want to hop into the Discord for the community, you are more than welcome to! Since the second half of my challenge will be running into the first half of NaNo, it will all intersect nicely. And, knowing me and my propensity for writing enormous books, I may be writing through most of November anyway as I try to scramble to get my book fully written. *nervous laughter* I’m setting November 15th as a very loose end date, but if it goes past that, I’m not sweating it. The main thing is I’ll be officially starting on October 15th and then just writing until I’m done!

I would absolutely love to have you join me. I’m not putting any strict rules such as you having to start a new draft or your goal needs to be 50k or anything like that. This is more like Camp NaNo where you can come with any project and stay for the company, encouragement, and motivation of other writers working alongside you.

I’m also very open to ideas you may have! Again, I’m keeping it very simple and casual this year. But if you have thoughts on more ways to make it fun, please tell me. I’d love to hear them!

What About Know the Novel?

Some of you may be wondering if this is the end of my annual Know the Novel writers linkup. And I want to assure you that it absolutely is NOT. I will be running Know the Novel just as scheduled, with each part coming at the beginning of the last three months of the year per usual. So keep your eyes peeled for part 1 come early October!

I also hope to still do my usual weekly writing updates here on the blog during the challenge as I do with every NaNo. So many of you precious people have told me you actually enjoy my mad, sleep-deprived rambles. And, truth be told, I love being able to log my crazy first drafting escapades via those posts. Definitely expect to see my usual writing insanity this fall.

Really, the only thing that will be changing is that I’ll be starting two weeks early this year and not using the official NaNo site. Otherwise, things will continue as usual. Late nights, mad writing, too much coffee consumption, and a disastrous but oh-so-satisfying first draft fully written by the end of it.

Truth be told, I am EXCITED. It was hard at first facing the fact that I was giving up something I’ve been doing for twelve entire years of my life. But once I accepted it, a whole new realm of possibilities flooded my mind and relief and thrill replaced the despondency. There’s something so very freeing about starting the challenge within my own time and being able to open it to my close friends.

It’s going to be a good Autumn of writing, guys. A little different, but perhaps even better. And I would LOVE for you to join me.

Whew. There we have it. Pretty big changes for me, but I truly am excited for future things to come. Don’t forget to toss me an email if you’re interested in joining! And if you have ANY questions or ideas, do share them below. Let me know all your thoughts!