This will be my second time doing NaNo after there is no more Office of Letters and Light which feels weird. Last year, I made plans to go on a trip for the start of November, to be literally on a train as October 31st become November 1st. This year, I spent part of November 1st doing in-person sprints for the first time, because last year was a bit like missing a step.

Last year, I found out after I made travel plans, while I was getting ready to post the tentative title of my tentative novel.

This year, I found myself trying – and failing – to explain all of this to a non-writer I know, what happened and why OLL did not survive but NaNo did.

If anything, it felt more fun – and challenging than ever this year – writing in a crowd of fellow writers, winning an awesomely fun sprint prize. Everyone present won a prize, so being relatively fast just got me an early choice and the one – pictured below – was awesome.

All of this inspired me to do what I have been thinking about doing for a while: returning to IWSG, the Insecure Writer’s Support Group to share insecurities, updates, et cetera.

I still write. I’m one of those writers that can literally not NOT write. I think I would dwindle away and die.

For me, writing is such a parallel play type activity. I really want to be alone, but I also don’t want to be alone. I don’t want anyone reading my drafts over my shoulder, but I want to be reminded that in a crazy world, in what feels like an increasingly crazy world, this – writing – is a sane activity, perhaps one of the sanest things we can do.

Anyway, this year feels weird but also like a returning to normal after health scares, grad school, so much really. Being human feels weird right now. Like the dinosaurs lasted for longer than it feels like we have any particular hope of lasting. And I might as well just say something, while I am here.

This has been a bit of a ramble. Thanks to my fellow writers and looking forward to reading what others have to say this time around.