I was having another month of “what topic am I going to cover for the blog?” I asked Gemini for some ideas, and as we were brainstorming, I realized it’s October. So…
Anyone who has been following along may or may not remember that October always carried the announcement that I would be doing National Novel Writing Month. You’ll also remember that NaNoWriMo officially died in early 2025 and that several corporate copycats sprang up to pick up the refugees.
In NaNo’s final year of 2024, I woke up blind in early November. One night, I was struggling to see words on a screen, and the next morning that struggle was lost entirely. I ended my NaNoWriMo perfect streak that year, ending the event with a 95% win rate. It was a devastating loss, because it wasn’t due to laziness or lack of motivation. It wasn’t because of writer’s block. I lost because I couldn’t see the danged screen.
I’ve already recounted the medical journey that led to my restored vision.
So now here it is, October 2026, and I find myself at that proverbial crossroads… I want to do NaNoWriMo again… but now that it doesn’t exist, where do I go from here?
THE CANDIDATES
One option: Nano 2.0 — Chris Baty, founder of the original, formed an unofficial offshoot that I didn’t know about until well after the fact. It has the advantage of being by the guy who was there the first year I did it (I met him on his book tour for No Plot No Problem when he made a point of dropping by an Austin write-in just to talk to us). However, it doesn’t have the forums or widgets I’m used to for the tracking. Does that matter? Maybe not… but it won’t quite feel like community.
Another option: Kalen and Doozle (whose name I will probably need to change if I continue to reference him in this blog). I’ve long tried to get my writing club buddies to do NaNoWriMo. Now that we have the writers’ club, I might be able to talk them into writing a novel in November. The advantage: I already know and love them. The drawback? We only meet once every two weeks. Not really conducive to a full month-long event.
Those corporate things I avoided last year: Let’s be realistic. Although a for-profit company doesn’t have the altruistic intentions of the non-profit that was NaNoWriMo, they do have experience and a user-base on their side. NovNov (a groovy name, no question) and whatever that other one was called filled the hole left behind when NaNoWriMo shut its doors with no warning. But I’m not sure a corporate environment is what I want in a writing marathon.
And lastly, the North Orange County group. I don’t know if they did one of the copycats last year, Nano 2.0, or just wrote because it was November and that’s what we do… but they were active last November. They still meet regularly out in the real world. The only thing, it seems, they don’t do any longer are the weekly voice chats I used to crash whenever I was aware enough to do so. As such, I haven’t really had a chance to connect and find out if they’re planning anything for this November.
AN ATHLETIC METAPHOR
You know how much I love sportsball: Not at all. However, there is an athletic parallel that’s gnawing at my brain here. I completed 2023’s NaNoWriMo with literally minutes to spare. It was the closest I came to losing until I actually lost.
And now here it is, nearly three years later. I’ve written in the time since my eyes came back, but not with any regularity… and certainly not at the rigorous NaNoWriMo pace. I think I even used the term “atrophied” in describing my creative muscles. They haven’t really gotten the exercise I would like.
I’m like that handegg quarterback whose knee was damaged in a devastating tackle. It’s been repaired, but now he’s playing in the big game (you decide which game is big enough for this metaphor). Is his body up for the task?
Is my writing brain up for this task?
When the egg snaps on the running play, will I be able to run the full 50,000 words for the home run… or will my knee give out on me before I’ve even started?
(Huh. That metaphor almost works. Go me!)
THE CONCLUSION
50k or bust. That’s been my November motto for the last 20+ years, give or take a couple that I took off. My track record isn’t perfect, but after two decades of putting fingers to keyboard, more than a million cumulative words, and coming out a winner 95% of the time…
I’m ready to see what new form November will take for me.
Can I do it? Does it even matter?
We’ll just have to find out.