nanowrimo retrospective

Last night, I went to the Toronto "SIGH OF RELIEF it's over" NaNoWriMo party. I was hesitant about going at first. I hadn't attended any of the coffeehouse writing sessions with the group earlier in the month; I'd be an outsider. Plus I was worried about what kind of people I'd be meeting for the first time. I mean, geez, what kind of weirdo would voluntarily sign up to write 50,000 words in a month for no compensation and no guarantee of publication?

Then I remembered that duh, I'm one of those weirdos, too. :-)

The gathering took place in the basement party room at the Bishop & Belcher at Queen & Peter. Within a few minutes of arriving, I realized that my fears were unfounded. First, I was greeted by Rachel, the Toronto NaNoWriMo liaison:





I'm not sure what was happening in the other cities, but I know for a fact that Rachel did an amazing job with the Toronto NaNoWriMo community. She organized writing sessions, watched over the Toronto NaNoWriMo forums, helped keep people motivated, planned the final party, probably lots more I don't know about.

When I arrived, I was greeted and presented with my freebies, which consisted of cool NaNoWriMo stickers:





and NaNoWriMo pencils:





There was also a table of other goodies for everyone, some bought by Rachel out of her own pocket (!) and others donated by Book Television. I got a prize for reaching 50k, and chose this classy notebook with a furry cover:





I told Rachel I wanted to help donate some money to help cover costs, but she refused to take my money. She said that she was getting her compensation from working with such a great group of people.

And as I started chatting with the others and listening to some read excerpts from their manuscripts, it became clear to me what she meant. There was a bond between everyone in that room, a feeling of support and encouragement that I'd only expect from a group that had been together for years. And even though I hadn't attended any of the coffee sessions, I was drawn in as well, felt instantly welcome.

We talked about our NaNoWriMo experiences and our writing. Some said they had fun with their NaNoWriMo novel but didn't plan to get it published. Others said they planned to edit their story and possibly start submitting it. Whatever our future plans, we all agreed that the NaNoWriMo experience had been a special one we wouldn't soon forget. Some members of the group have already started making plans to continue getting together for writing/editing sessions.

And as I walked home a few hours later, I had to wonder if Chris Baty and the other NaNoWriMo volunteer staff realize what an effect they've had on the writing community. I've already written about what I got out the experience; I'm sure there are many other retrospectives being posted online these past few days.

NaNoWriMo may have started as a lark, but it's grown to become so much more than that. You just have to browse through the NaNoWriMo forums to imagine that gatherings like the one in downtown Toronto last night were happening all around the world, not to mention the numerous online message boards, Web rings, weblogs and mailing lists that have sprung up as a result of NaNoWriMo.

Bravo to people like Rachel and the other NaNoWriMo volunteers, and especially Chris Baty! Not only have they helped foster new friendships and local writing communities, but they've reminded us of what it's like to write for the sheer joy of writing.

Ironically, the "SIGH OF RELIEF it's over" party seemed also to be the "geez, part of me wishes it wasn't over yet" party for many of us. But hey...we can always sign up again next year. :-)





Work update:

Finished cleaning out my e-mail inbox yesterday. From 2124 e-mails to zero in two days! Did some market research, prepared and sent out two article queries. I love editors who are e-mail savvy. By the end of the day, I got an acceptance from one of the editors, who also proposed I write a series of articles along the same theme (!). I'm very excited about this, of course, and promised him a list of ideas by the end of the week. Wish me luck.

Links/News:

For those interested, I've collected all my NaNoWriMo cartoons in one place (the Livejournal archiving process seems to be buggy, so I've collected these in Movable Type)

Kathy Sanborn recently interviewed me for her Writing Success column. For those interested, here's the interview.

One year ago, we got a new car, and I posted a very silly Lord of the Rings comic at the top of the page.