NaNoWriMo – National Novel Writing Month – Nov 2018

Greetings! And welcome to my little corner of the world. I appreciate you stopping by and investing your moments here with me.

NaNoWriMo. What the heck is it? I honestly found this purely by accident, and I do believe I learned about it on Twitter in 2014. This will be my third time doing it. In a nutshell, it is the National Novel Writing Month. It is like a club of sorts, with the goal of completing a minimum of 50,000 words by midnight on the last night of November. Basically 50K in 30 days. Which is approximately 1667 words per day.

If you are anything like me, doing something every single day creatively, just does not happen. I think about things, and overthink about things and writing is no different. I need the environment, (usually comfy jammies or my infamous soft flannel shirt, my background writing playlist on, and a couple candles burning. I can literally write all night when all those things are in place.

Trouble is, it is definitely NOT every day!

This is definitely a big writing commitment and exercise. It is a way to get a novel started, get a first draft completed, explore an idea you have been rolling around in your head for who knows how long, and it is just about WRITING. I have a bad habit of writing and editing along the way. Not good. It is cumbersome and you second guess just about everything. (Now you know why my first novel is literally getting completed at a snails pace)

NaNoWriMo is committing to free writing for an entire month. It takes a decision, some commitment, and a plan. I start about now, rolling around ideas in my head and writing a list of potential book or writing topics. I start thinking November. What things will I have get done in that month that I can do earlier to free up some time. In the US there is a major holiday in November as well (Thanksgiving) so you will. need to adjust for that. It is a month that I don’t binge watch anything, I check in with family once a week as they have all been informed of my project (and the support from them is pretty awesome), I grocery shop, stock up and meal prep. I buy a special coffee cup. I create a peaceful writing space. I make sure everything I can possibly get done, I do ahead of time. I sign up for the current year and start finding people to collaborate with and know (there is communication capability on the site and it is great to be accountable with other writers) You log your daily word count so you an stay on track for yourself and can keep track of others as well.

NaNoWriMo is not for the weak at heart. It is definitely not easy. You hit road blocks. You write and write and wonder what the heck you are writing about at times. Your story will change direction at least a dozen times. You will get behind on word count. You will panic a time or two. You will experience at least a few “binge” writing times where the writing is going so well, the sun comes up before your creative streak is completed.

And you just keep writing.

And then? Guess what? You have hit your 50.000 words. Or sometimes more. You have completed an unedited piece of work All on your own. You have won. You have succeeded. You did it.

Highly recommend!

NaNoWriMo.org.      I am Polley1993     Join and Come friend me!

Until next time…….be kind………always,

Polley93