NaNoWri-NO!

Autumn has really arrived. Last Friday we had a full-blown autumn gale which threw all the chestnuts from my parents' chestnut tree and left many people wandering around with broken umbrellas. Now the atmosphere has settled again, no rain, no clouds, and the clear sky brings very cold nights and chilly but extremely fresh mornings. I love the crisp smell of autumn, maybe even more than the warm tinge that announces summer in May. For me, this holds the promise of enjoyment to come: my birthday, Sint Maarten, Sinterklaas, Christmas, all those bright and warm and happy gatherings.
Also, this air gets my creative juices flowing. Normally, I would be preparing for NaNoWriMo, the National Novel Writing Month, by thinking up a plot and protagonist while translating their webpages into Dutch. But this year, I'm doing neither. I can barely keep everything together as it is, between my internship and dissertation and social life and committees and what not, so writing 50,000 words of prose is completely out of the question.
It's the first time in 6 years that I won't be competing. The first few years I failed, but I won (which means: I wrote a novel of at least 50,000 words within a month) in 2009, 2010 and 2011. I can't even remember what those novels were about, to be honest, but that's not the point, the point is to write write write until you can't write anymore.
But not for me, this year.
I'd fully resigned to this, and even sent them an e-mail stating that I wouldn't do the translation this year, but be back next year (in which I told them I was 'doing an intern' rather than 'doing an internSHIP', which must have caused some hilarity...), when people on Facebook who've never shown any literary ambitions before suddenly started posting "doing NaNo this year! First time!" and I started receiving emails from the Write-In group that I attend here in Groningen asking when we will first meet up, and stuff about the launch party and what not, and now I feel like I'm missing out on this really big and beautiful thing and I should try and do it anyway. And it's true, I am missing out on a great thing, but really, it's more the atmosphere of connectedness and striving together to reach this great, impossible goal that I'll miss, not the frustration and hard work and cold fingers and jealousy at those who finish within 24 hours while you haven't even started etc etc. But those are the things you forget, while the great people and great moments and great feeling when you've finished stay with you.
So for those who are not swamped with work this November, and feel like they could write a novel, or could be the sort of person who writes novels, or just want to join an amazing community that inspires people around the world: www.nanowrimo.org.
Next year, I'll be back.