The end of an(other) Era.

Welcome back to another blog hop, with #OpenBook. Here’s this week’s prompt.

Don’t forget to click the link to see what everyone else has to say on this week’s subject. It’s at the end of my post.

It’s official. The NaNoWriMo organization (National Novel Writing Month) is shutting down. What’s your reaction?

I have mixed feelings. I’ve actually completed the challenge ten times. All ten novels are on sale, while four of them are also available as audiobooks.

They are,

2014. Ribbonworld

2016. Andorra Pett and the Oort Cloud Cafe

2017. Life and Other Dreams

2018. The Sensaurum and the Lexis

2019. The Hitman and the Thief

2020. The Syk’m

2021. We Are Saul

2022. I Remember Everything

2023. Where’s Lizzie?

2024. Andorra Pett Meets Her Match.

As you can see from the list, I did my first NaNo in 2014. I was off work with a shoulder problem and saw something about it online. I had one novel on sale and decided that, with time on my hands, it would be a good way of writing a second.

So, in a way, NaNoWriMo kickstarted my writing journey. The idea and concept suited the way my mind worked and I enjoy the buzz that watching my word count creep up gives me.

I never got involved in the whole social side of things, with groups, writing buddies and the like. That’s purely because I’m an introvert.

Every November, it was just me against the clock, for my own personal satisfaction.

I’d start thinking about possible projects well in advance and plan my month around making more time than usual to write every day. Blog posts were written in August and scheduled, my social media posting lapsed, except for word count updates.

My editor was put on standby to receive a first draft on December 1st, which gave me another spur to get writing.

Then we come to the controversy that they managed to create last year, with their comments about AI and disability.

More about that here,

Personally, I keep out of involvement in that sort of discussion, as it soon degenerates into chaos. But the sentiment and implication annoyed me.

Even before the news, I had already decided that I would not be participating officially in the challenge in 2025.

But…., I will still be using the month of November to try to do what I’ve done every year for ten of the past eleven.

I just won’t be calling it NaNoWriMo.

What do you think about this week’s subject?

Let me know by leaving me a comment.

While you’re here, please click the InLinkz link to check out what my fellow writers have to say about this week’s topic.

Until next time.

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