NaNoWriMo Saved Me

By Kelly Bridgewater

Well, I did it.

NaNoWriMo.

This was my second time actually trying it. Then I actually won. The last time I did NaNoWriMo was in 2014, and I won. I wrote a suspense novel then, but since then I have fallen in love with historical stories, so I really want to write a historical suspense novel.

But on October 2015, my father died, and our family took a weeklong vacation to Disney World over Thanksgiving, so I was a just a little bit busy.

For the past two years, I have had a hard time writing anything. I lost myself in books after books, writing reviews by the weeks. The days, weeks, and months slipped by. Even the years flew by.

This year, I begged God to give me my desire of the heart back. He gave me the desire to write for a reason, right. This has been my dream since as far as I can imagine. I remember playing an imagination game in my best friend's side yard, and I went home to write what we played that day.

In July, I prayed that prayer. Then in October, I prayed if I should go do NaNoWriMo, which would hopefully bring my love of writing back.

I planned all October with a little bit of the plot planned out, but not much. I felt ready to dive in.

November first came and I wrote 2,000 words. Then the second came, again another 2,000 words. But the third came, and I couldn't write at all. I felt defeated. Even begged God to not take this desire away from me. I started this book before my father died, but I stopped and haven't touched anything since.

But I kept moving forward. The week before Thanksgiving, I felt like I was moving along at a nice clip and had written a number of words. I got depressed a number of times, but I told myself I needed to do this.

I prayed a lot during November. I begged God for the story. I walked a nice walkway in my bedroom on the carpet at the end of my bed. I spent many moments discussing my story and my characters and deciding what they needed to do next.

nanowrimo.org

On Monday, November 27th at 4 p. m., I finished my NaNoWriMo goal. I reached 50,388 words in 27 days. I felt great. I felt excited. I did it! It was a joy I haven't felt in a long time.

Yes, there are many chapters that will be deleted. There are many moments I need to revise and rewrite. I need to spend more time thinking of my climactic moment and how my characters will reach them. I probably need to think more about the subplot and do my research.

So no, this novel isn't publishable by a long shot, but I have overcome the huge writer's block that has blanketed my entire existence for the past two years.

I pray I continue forward and work on finishing this book, with prayer, by June 2018.

How about you? What have you done to move past a writer's block that blocked your creativity for more than a month?