It's done for this month. I might work on another 3 days before I stop for Thanksgiving Holidays. And then get back to work on the Monday after. I am going to be cooking and doing some shopping this week, visiting the boys some. The Nano stat chart kept saying I would finish today and they were right. The chapters are pretty consistent in page numbers, which most of the time took two days of work to do. Sometimes 3. I just kept focusing on the chapter each time and never thought beyond that. One chapter at a time. 

Unfortunately, laughing, NANO does not a book MAKE. It is far from finished. But it really helped me catch up after losing October to no more than a single chapter. That hurt. I am not a 50,000 word a month writer normally. Those writers are Nora Roberts and Stephen King, who do their 10 pages a day, for so many days a month without fail. I could name about 15 other NYT writers who do that and at least 20 other writers who come close, who often make other lists. Some people do approach writing just like a 9-5 job. Most working writers are always writing though, you can count on that. They write daily. They don't wait for inspiration or to feel good, etc. In other words, when they get going in the morning or night, they sit down and write and write for hours and hours at a time. That's why NANO is good. Habit. One word at a time. One page at a time. Habit. Creating a habit. Committing to work. 

My son has a running coach. He wanted to run a marathon, which is 26.2 miles. He had to work years for that. He spent a few of those years with a running coach. They still run together. It might surprise people that I spent money in 2021 with a therapist in order to reclaim a creative process that I once possessed and lost. Because any creative process takes a kind of belligerent commitment. I relearned that commitment is inspiration. It's not about time, but about the art, the creative act. Committing to the act of creating your art, whatever that may be. Because this is how I make meaning. This is how I am fulfilled emotionally as a person. And yes, sometimes it is a struggle. While NANO is a more visible goal that you are sort of sharing with countless other writers, it's just November, 30 days. And then it's over and writers have to keep working. 

I have always felt that art, which is my writing, unlike many other jobs and chores that take up part of our lives, is different, it requires nearly all of me to make it happen. NANO teaches you that. To do your work, some other things will be sacrificed. I already know TV, Movies, things like that are what I once sacrificed the most and now I know it's social media, too. Because I am going to read, and talk to my children, and take care of my house. I am going to exercise and garden in the spring and summer. But leisure time is small and precious. NANO teaches you HOW to choose, too. 

I often think of NANO as an exaggerated state of creating where IF you really want to finish your art and have a life of art aka writing, you can figure out in NANO what you can do and not do, not only in writing but in life as a writer. That's the kind of tool NANO can be. Most people laugh at NANO. A lot do. I used to. I never could finish a NANO. I never even kept the drafts in the few NANOs I did long ago. Garbage. But then last year I understood what NANO could really do, that it was an opportunity for some writers. 

I always like what John Irving said about writing: Half my life is an act of revision. NANO teaches you that, too.