My journey to becoming a published author began around 2018. I mean, I’ve always loved to write, and not a year has gone by that I didn’t have song lyrics, or a random spot of poetry flowing from the pen to the paper (or fingers to computer), but this was the year things really changed.

We took a family vacation and I decided to document the experience of driving from one side of the country to the other in a tiny compact rental car. It was kind of a memory diary, a thing just for us.

I took notes throughout the entire trip, and wrote a short story humorously summarizing our trip when we returned home. In hindsight, I’m glad I wrote it all down though, because it turned out to be our last vacation with kids still living at home.

Enter NaNoWriMo

Around that time I’d also reconnected with an old friend who had decided to write a novel. They shared theirs, and I shared our vacation story. That’s when they told me about NaNoWriMo, which stands for National Novel Writing Month.

It’s a “competition” held every November for writers around the world. In a nutshell, you have 30 days to write a 50,000 word novel. There’s even a little progress graph that can either make you feel really good, or SUPER behind, depending on how your dot falls on the line.

If you are able to write 50,000 words before midnight on December 1st, you win. There are no tangible prizes, but you get coupon codes for merch and software that makes writing easier. It’s more of a motivational thing, than a competition.

NaNo Win

2019 was the first year I participated, and subsequently the only year I ever “won”. Writing is harder than most people think. I definitely underestimated the work that goes into producing a decent story.

The story I wrote for Nano 2019 ended up being tucked away in a folder on my computer. Lacking experience in both subject matter and the ins and outs of composing a whole novel made that particular storyline almost impossible to write for a newbie. It wasn’t until I’d written 53,000 words, that it dawned on me that the story would be best told with a partner. So I put it away for a time when I find said writing partner.

Try, Try Again

Then in 2020 the pandemic hit, and everything went sideways. That year for NaNoWriMo I started the rough draft to a story that would eventually become “Darkness Under the Lamp”, my debut novel. Of course I didn’t win, but I’d gained some experience at least.

I took a break after NaNo ended and didn’t touch the story for a few months. Once I’d had time to decompress I started the editing process.

I plugged away, changing scenes, ripping whole chapters out, only to write something different to take its place. I’d work on it for a while, then put it away and take a breather, allowing the plot holes to annoy me into a solution. Lather, rinse, repeat.

This cycle went on and on, adding words, then taking more away. A year turned to two, then it started to get close NaNoWriMo 2023. I buckled down and finished round after round of edits. Then, I decided to set a launch date in the hopes I would finally make it over the finish line.