My NaNoWriMo journey

By Ryan Jones

When Ontario colleges went on strike around the end of October I never thought the stoppage of school would turn into something miraculous. Even though I was not able to attend class, I was able to work on my passion — writing.

Before I knew the strike was set in stone I was milling over the idea of participating in NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month. I knew with school in the mix it would make writing more difficult due to assignments. Once the strike was confirmed I knew it was destiny to start my NaNoWriMo journey.

It was Oct. 31. I was sitting in Starbucks, a table for two, laptop in front of me as I typed NaNoWriMo into a Google search and signed up. Once my account was confirmed I then compiled my ideas into a one-page prologue. From there, the story wrote itself and the words flowed. The characters grew, the setting was painted and the plot thickened.

By Nov. 12 I had reached the 50,000 word goal on my young adult dystopia, The Defective, but I did not stop there. I wanted to finish the book in its entirety. As school started back up it was more difficult to continue, but once a week I would edit and add around 4,000 words.

On Dec. 28, 2017  I  completed my novel with 75,578 words and 307 pages.

The moment of completion was surreal and it is an emotional moment I will remember forever. I did not know whether to cry, laugh or jump up and down. The next months will be crucial with the editing, publishing and cover design process but it will be an enthralling experience.

My best friend told me it is a huge accomplishment.

“You realize you wrote a whole novel in two months,” said Claudia.

My brain cannot compute the dexterity of my efforts. And maybe it is because I fulfilled my passion: it did not feel like work, it was not a taxing task or chore.

I simply did what I love. It was fun and my creativity was satisfied.

The Defective will be published around April of 2018. Keep your eyes peeled for more updates.