National Novel Writing Month Is Over for 2023

Almost every day I would ask myself, why am I doing this again? And I would answer that it helps me with my writing discipline. To meet the goal of 50,000 words it is only about 1700 words a day. 'Only' is not the right word for it, however!

That is a lot of words each day and it takes more than discipline.

I couldn't imagine starting a new book, so it's a good thing that I did want to finish something I had started and didn't finish not that long ago on NaNoWriMo. Something that I write about all of the time. Could I? Yes, I can and did.

I decided to write a book on my favorite topic this year - Aging!

I pulled chapters together based on my previous writing and then included stories already published on Vocal Media and Medium. I have more material than I needed for this project. To the tune of 56337 words. I passed my writing goal without writing all of that in one month.

What it amounts to is a book of short stories about my life and others on becoming elders. It is complete with poetry/rhymes, family, marriage, cancer, dementia/Alzheimers, invisible illness, aging women, tips and interviews with others.

The idea for interviews with others came from writing buddies as I watched what they did when interviewing others here on Vocal.

I thought that others' experiences and memories of aging today would be interesting. Then where they expect to be going in the future would be helpful. A few could be retired and are still working part-time as I am. Then a few others are looking forward to full retirement.

And the big question is, will I like retirement as much as working?

I answered that by saying, I work part-time and I think it would be a good idea to gradually have elders work less and less until retirement. Before retirement, my job was too stressful to continue working there and thankfully I hit age 62 and decided to retire.

Working part-time can become more when I allow it. The best thing is I have a choice about what and where I am working. Sometimes I hang in there longer than I plan to. I have found the best replacements for positions I was ready to give up.

A teaching position and a couple of weekly youth groups at a crisis shelter were those positions. I found the perfect people to fill them. Now it is time to find a replacement for the adult crisis shelter I work at weekly.

I decided I didn't want a weekly commitment. Training counselors is what I choose to do now and that is okay to be a monthly commitment. After all, I will be 70 in January.

One interviewee said that she loves her job. She has older co-workers who are all close to retirement except one coworker. She said that she has been in her position for 25 years as have many of her other co-workers. Her brother works there as well and she sees him every day.

We talked about some aging issues and how her co-workers talk about hip replacements and all the different aches and pains that can accompany aging. It is fun comparing when doing the interviews. We had a fun conversation and our catching up was long overdue.

She is considering retirement at 65 and she believes that is when she thinks old is for her. She stated that she has begun to get in touch with her feeling like an old person when it comes to walking on the stair master at the gym where she is more self-conscious.

Then when out of breath, she will often just stand there, until her breath comes back.

Her daughter moved in with her recently and she is helping her to eat healthier and start doing 30-day challenges with Adrian on Facebook. She believes that is helping her, even though it wasn't her idea.

Some of these interviews are way more interesting than some of the things happening in my life! And I can even learn something and get encouragement to try yoga. Although I have tried it on retreats. I already heard I could get my height back. That wasn't enough to get me started!

Then I know it helps lower my blood sugar and that should get me doing it regularly! No, it doesn't. So what will? Friends and families encouragement? She said, now that I have a grandson, I want to be around for him as he grows up.

Well, maybe that! And she added it is about 15 minutes a day for her right now. Then she told me that there are all kinds of videos from the very beginning yoga to more advanced yoga.

That was just a small part of one interview. Wow, what I learned about my cousins and other family and friends. NaNoWriMo is something I am not ready to give up. Next year I am going to write a book of fiction. I am open to suggestions.