Ebony's Pearls

I know, we're slow, but we're just now getting around to our Thank Ghu It's Over Party.

Officially, we only had 3 winners in our region, but that's because most of the people didn't set our region as their home region. There were 85 winners in the state of Oklahoma. 39 were in Oklahoma City, 42 in Tulsa, and the other 4 were at large in the state.

I decided to donate $1.00 for each winner in our region, and expanded it out to be the whole state since it was such a small number of winners. I also included the winners for the Geezer Forum (those of us over age 50), so my total final donation to NaNoWriMo (other than the one I made at the start of this year's challenge) was $135.00 because I knew 135 people who won NaNoWriMo.

I don't know about all y'all, but I think it's pretty special to know that many people who were dedicated enough to see the challenge through to the end.

I know there will be those who claim we wasted our time and grinch that few of these novels will ever see the light of day, but that wasn't the point of NaNoWriMo. We didn't write these novels in order to get them published; we wrote them because we could. We wrote them because it was a pleasurable experience for us. We wrote them because it allowed us to connect with other people who also had dreams. We wrote them because we could encourage others to follow those dreams. We wrote them during November because we had a vast, interactive network of others commiserating, cheering, encouraging, and challenging us.

Some, like me, write as a part of NaNoWriMo year after year because it's the one time of the year I allow myself to write the sort of things I want to write - fun writing that doesn't has to meet anyone else's standards, that doesn't have to wend its way through Legal and Corporate, that doesn't have to be in a set format. Much of my writing is technical and strictly confined as to what it is and will be. For one all-too-brief month, I give myself permission to write whatever pops into my head for the fun of it.

I get to do it with hundreds of other people, most of whom are much younger than me, but with a really crazy,zany, and fun group of people who are near my own age.

Age doesn't matter. Skill really doesn't matter, either. It's the effort and the finish line that matter.

If we listened to all the nay-sayers out there, no one would ever have the courage to follow a dream, to reach beyond themselves, to connect on deep and meaningful (and silly) levels with others. No one would dare to have fun.

So maybe the nay-sayers enjoy being Negative Neds and Nellies. That's OK. They can grinch and groan and condemn all they want.

We who wrote our 50,000+ words on a novel can afford to be gracious and allow them their pessimism.

After all, we did it, and they didn't even try.

Those who tried and didn't complete the challenge at least had the pleasure of being among us, of seeing that it is possible to dare and dream and reach. Next year, some of them will be back, and maybe they will cross that finish line - or get closer to it. They try, and maybe one day, they'll succeed.

The whole point of NaNoWriMo is to stop and say, "I always said, one day I'd write a novel. That day is here, now, in November, with a lot of other people who said the same thing. It is a glorious thing we do together."

There is no more procrastinating, no more delaying, no more excuses. We do it - as far as we can. And when we cross the finish line, we can say, "I did it!", and we know that we can face other challenges and do them, too.

So, to the 85 Okies who did it - congratulations!

To the hundreds of human beings around the world who started and won NaNoWriMo - CONGRATULATIONS!

The the hundreds of people who started NaNoWriMo but couldn't finish - we'll be waiting for you next year to help you as far as you can go.

Anyway, all of this is to say - tonight is the TGIO Party. We have Winners buttons to hand out, and patches. We have food to eat. And we can read our favorite excerpts to one another.

Good food, good words, good people - that's the point of NaNoWriMo.