Recently, in a conversation with my brother-in-law, I made the comment, “I’m not a writer.” Daniel chuckled and said, “You didn’t think you were a writer.” Well, I suppose since this is blog post #367 and original posts #1-50 served as the catalyst to publish a book under my name, perhaps I am, after all, a writer!
That’s the beautiful thing about National Novel Writing Month (“NaNoWriMo,” held every November). It allows anyone – and I do mean anyone – to become a true author.
For me, it began with the idea that I would blog for 30 days – just 30 – and never do so again. My intent was to document my process for building a solid professional network. That was November 2011. Been blogging weekly ever since. And, by tradition, Coffee Lunch Coffee posts EVERY DAY during the month of November, every year. And, in fact, today marks the start of my sixth NaNoWriMo! Amazing.
Though my approach to NaNoWriMo is a bit unconventional (no novel… no 50,000-word minimum for the month… pre-writing encouraged… etc.), the concept of daily content creation holds true.
I must tell you, though, this year, I’m cheating! I have had loads of assistance and my responsibilities for writing have been somewhat limited. You see, as you may recall, tragedy struck my family the first week in November 2014… having lost my father-in-law and my grandfather within four days of one another during the first week of the month, there would have been no way I could have kept up with the promise of blogging every day. I needn’t have worried. Out of woodwork came my people. Without having to ask for assistance, connections from near and far stepped up to “guest blog” for me so I could honor Coffee Lunch Coffee’s commitment to its community to deliver a quality post every day during the month.
So, as a result of that amazing display of community, over the past few years, I have invited members of the CLC Community to contribute guest posts to fill out November. The response this year was amazing! You will hear very little from me and a great deal from several phenomenal thinkers from around the country. I believe you will find tremendous value in the diversity of thought, perspective and style. I am certain Coffee Lunch Coffee will be better for having these guest submissions among its repository.
Welcome to NaNoWriMo 2016!