I’ll admit, I lost my excitement for Camp NaNoWriMo for a while this month. The state of the world made looking forward to a month of writing nearly impossible. I don’t go out much, but many of my loved ones have to go out every day to work. They’re jobs are considered essential so they’re not likely to be ordered to stay home where they can properly isolate.

Today has actually been the worst day so far for me. This was supposed to be my grandparents’ joint birthday party. This coming week my grandfather will be 92 and the following week will be my grandmother’s 90th birthday. It’s become a tradition to rent out the community room in their retirement community and invite the entire family as well as all their friends to celebrate with an overabundance of cupcakes. My mom and aunts all bake so they always end up making close to a dozen different kinds of cupcakes.

Obviously, it was cancelled.

I haven’t seen my grandparents in weeks and I have no idea when I’ll see them again. My mom and her siblings have taken turns bringing them groceries, but visits aren’t a necessity so I’m staying away.

Maybe feeling down about this was what finally pushed my mind back toward thinking about Camp NaNoWriMo. There isn’t much else for me to feel excited about these days.

I woke up today feeling ready to be part of a community of frenetic, goal-driven writers again. Even if I’m just continuing the project I’m currently working on, it’s going to make all the difference to feel a bit more connected.

I’ve never felt like I needed a NaNoWriMo event before. It was always something nice to give myself an extra boost. Now it’s nearly a necessity. I need the distraction. I need a little space dedicated to something creative and sequestered away from the news of the world at large. It’s too easy to hop on social media to reach out to fellow writers and get bombarded by worrying news. Once I start thinking about that, I struggle to feel creative. I’m hoping my Camp NaNoWriMo cabin can be a place to chat about writing without the risk of running into other topics.

Are you participating in Camp NaNoWriMo? Add me as a buddy!

I also have a cabin for next month! If you’d like to join, tell me your NaNoWriMo username and I’ll send you an invite. There’s plenty of room.