I learned of the National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) in 2014. I’d wanted to write a novel since, maybe, forever. And NaNoWriMo was a challenge – write 50,000 words in a single month.

I’m ADHD, so challenges like this really get my dopamine rushing.

I signed up for the challenge and started writing a story called The Internal Struggles of a Budding Serial Killer. I didn’t get far before I faded. It seemed like a good idea, but I really had no clue how to write a novel.

Not to mention understanting the inner workings of a serial killer’s mind – in spite of having an addition to the ID Channel!

I’d written a ton of papers, poems, blog posts and even short stories. But a novel – well that was a very different beast altoghether.

I went into it thinking it was a very VERY long short story. It’s not. Not in any way.

Five Years of No Attempts

I spent the next five years dreaming of the NaNoWriMo challenge, but I really didn’t know what to write. Or even how to start.

I loved writing, but I couldn’t come up with a plot. My favorite non-fiction work that I wrote was a short story that paralleled John Cheever’s “The Swimmer.” It was a story of the Greek Gods pulling the strings on Cheever’s character.

I loved it because it followed Cheever’s plot. I could be creative. I could write. And I didn’t have to bother with what came next. I merely followed what Cheever wrote.

I earned an A on it in an undergrad literature class.

If I only had a plot outlined for me, I thought, I could write it.

Memoir Stories

I would often recount different stories of my past with friends and family. Most of them were funny, or at least entertaining. I asked myself, Why not write MY story?

After all, memories are stories. They have a plot and characters all built in. You don’t have to invent any of it. You just write it down.

In October 2020 I started a list of these stories – just a title or one-sentence summary. Things like “The time we ran away,” or “The time Tammy thought I got shot,” or “The time I sang the ‘blow-job song’ in the car.”

On November 1, I started writing.

I kept up with the 1,667 words per day from November 1 through November 11, 2020, writing early each weekday morning and anytime I could on the weekends.

I got just about 20,000 words in when my world shifted.

Mid-November Lay Off

On November 11, I was laid off. The lay off created a shift in my thinking (aka panic) and all I could focus on was finding a new job. I’d only been given one month of severance, with no compensation for health insurance. So finding a job was the top priority.

When I did find a job, Novemeber was over. I didn’t write any more – on the memoirs or anything. I didn’t want to “waste” writing in a month that wasn’t November.

In late 2021, I found a different (and better) job and was just starting it when NaNoWriMo came around. I was so focused on that new job, I decided to skip NaNoWriMo that year.

I promised myself I’d try for the next November.

I was still having fun at my job in October 2022. By the time I thought about NaNoWriMo, it was too late. There was too much going on to give me time to write the whole 50,000 words. I, again, promised myself I’d try for the following year.

That same routine repeated in 2023.

Finally, in 2024, I remembered NaNoWriMo in time to plan and get mentally ready. I would continue on my memoir stories.

Another Attempt at Memoir Writing

The rules for NaNoWriMo are that you have to write ALL 50k in the month of November. I had about 20,000 words of the memoir already written. I needed enough memoir stories for another 50,000 words.

I updated my list of memories in Dabble – brainstorming everything I could think of that ever happened in my youth. I even solicited friends and family members for memories.

I was ready to write.

I hit at least 1,667 words each day in November and finished on November 30, 2024. After 10 years of wanting to “win” NaNoWriMo, I finally did it!

I bought the t-shirt and the stickers. I printed the certificate. I felt so cool!

Months and Months of Zero Writing

I relished in my coolness. And then continued relishing in it. And then relished in it even more.

The most I did with my NaNoWriMo draft for eleven months was have a friend or family member read a story or two.

But I didn’t edit any of them. And I didn’t write any more of them.

Another Lay Off

In July 2025 I was alerted that I’d be laid off “probably some time in October.”

This hit me as, “You can take November to just write!” I knew I’d be getting 3 months severance, so using November to write instead of panicking about getting a job would be awesome. Plus it would dampen my “get a job” panic – which was a bonus!

But almost all of my memoir stories were written. And it was at 70k words. I wasn’t sure I had another 50k words worth of stories.

Maybe it’s time for an actual novel, I thought. After all, NaNoWriMo stands for National NOVEL Writing Month, not National Memoir Story Writing Month.

But still, I was unsure if I could even come up with a plot.

I remedied this with two things:

1. I signed up for the Dabble’s 60 Day Novel Writing challenge that would begin on October 1.
2. I decided to build my novel around a story I read as a kid: What the Witch Left by Ruth Chew.

The first would, hopefully, teach me the things I needed to know about writing a novel.

The second gave me a plot.

I was ready to try the challenge again – this time with a novel!