For the past few years, I have heard about NaNoWriMo. The National Novel Writing Month, which falls in November, each year. And, I’ll admit: I was skeptical about the value of attempting it.
After all, I had written a novel already, plus another book. In my mind, any month was a good time to be writing. Okay, I was a little arrogant about it too.
This year is different though. January through August, I didn’t have anything to do – no job, no school, no real responsibility - and could (should) have written a ton of stuff. Except, I didn’t. Like most writers who have a lot of free time, I wasn’t productive in any sense of the word. I did just about everything possible to avoid writing.
Let’s face it: writers need goals, deadlines, and accountability.
Oh, I’m sure there’s some out there who can get by without any of it. But I’m going to guess that about 95% of us can’t.
Looking back, my most productive writing times were when I had a ton of other things I absolutely had to get done for work and school and home.
So, I’m in. For NaNoWriMo. I’m all in.
The official NaNoWriMo goal is 50,000 words by midnight, November 31 (that's December 1st, for those that didn't catch that). That breaks down to about 1,600 words a day. This is day 5, and I’ve gotten just a hair over 9,000 words written, which puts me just barely ahead of the game. And I haven’t sat down to do my writing for today yet, so I may extend my lead.
I also have some intense motivation … my writer’s workshop wants a minimum of 45 pages, extensively revised and polished, for the “final.”
As weird / stupid as it may sound, I’m really excited about NaNoWriMo. I check in on it on Twitter (#NaNoWriMo or #NaNoWriMo18), just for inspiration and commiseration. There's an official website for it also: www.nanowrimo.org. I’m *very* happy to see so many people taking up the challenge.
Go forth and write!
After all, I had written a novel already, plus another book. In my mind, any month was a good time to be writing. Okay, I was a little arrogant about it too.
This year is different though. January through August, I didn’t have anything to do – no job, no school, no real responsibility - and could (should) have written a ton of stuff. Except, I didn’t. Like most writers who have a lot of free time, I wasn’t productive in any sense of the word. I did just about everything possible to avoid writing.
Let’s face it: writers need goals, deadlines, and accountability.
Oh, I’m sure there’s some out there who can get by without any of it. But I’m going to guess that about 95% of us can’t.
Looking back, my most productive writing times were when I had a ton of other things I absolutely had to get done for work and school and home.
So, I’m in. For NaNoWriMo. I’m all in.
The official NaNoWriMo goal is 50,000 words by midnight, November 31 (that's December 1st, for those that didn't catch that). That breaks down to about 1,600 words a day. This is day 5, and I’ve gotten just a hair over 9,000 words written, which puts me just barely ahead of the game. And I haven’t sat down to do my writing for today yet, so I may extend my lead.
I also have some intense motivation … my writer’s workshop wants a minimum of 45 pages, extensively revised and polished, for the “final.”
As weird / stupid as it may sound, I’m really excited about NaNoWriMo. I check in on it on Twitter (#NaNoWriMo or #NaNoWriMo18), just for inspiration and commiseration. There's an official website for it also: www.nanowrimo.org. I’m *very* happy to see so many people taking up the challenge.
Go forth and write!