After brainstorming, planning, and outlining my next novel for the two or three months previous to November, I felt this year would be as good a time as any to finally participate in National Novel Writing Month. Though I didn’t reach 50,000 words, I did reach my own personal goal of 25,000.
I loved the experience much more than I thought I would. Here’s why.
THE POWER OF A DEADLINE: I’ve been writing most of my life, and though I constantly remind myself how HUGELY much I have to learn, I was shocked at the stimulus that a simple goal and deadline can cause. I have always thought of myself as a slow writer. The experience of NaNo has made me suspect that perhaps I’m not so much slow as extremely laid back. And yes, there is a big difference there.
COMMUNITY THAT PUTS ME IN MY PLACE: There’s something amazing about knowing that thousands and thousands of people are participating in the same thing I am, all around the world. These people are churning their creativity, pushing themselves to limits, focusing, delving, crying, trying . . . spilling themselves into their own unique stories. Just like me. Puts a little perspective on things.
EVEN IF I LOSE, I WIN: So I didn’t get 50,000 words. No biggie. At 25,000 words, that’s at LEAST twice as much as I would normally write in a month’s time. That’s worth something to me, if nothing more than showing me I can do MORE than I believed I could. That’s a powerful thing.
For those of you who have participated before, whether beginner like me or veteran . . . what has NaNoWriMo taught you over the years?
YES. I’m so glad you tried NaNo and learned from it! I’m the same way and am more of a laid-back writer… 😛 I just completed my 9th NaNo and even though it’s kind of crazy and messy I love how it motivates me to keep showing back up to the page. 🙂 Congrats on your 25K, woohoo!!
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Your 9th??!! I’m intimidated and super impressed at the same time here! I really hadn’t expected much out of myself for my first NaNo to tell you the truth, so it was a pleasant surprise how much it pushed me! Hopefully I’ll be able to join you again next year!! 🙂
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Heh, I’ve been doing it since I was 15, to be fair. XD Hurray for surprising ourselves with MOAR WRITINGZ. 😀 I hope so too!
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This is awesome! Great job on your 25k! 😀
NaNoWriMo really showed me how much I actually could do as a writer. Before I tried NaNo for the first time in 2016, I’d never written that much in a month before, but I did and I got the 50k, and it really pushed me to the next step of “wow I actually can do this writing thing” and motivated me to keep going.
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Thank you! And yes, isn’t it such a colossal motivator? Did you participate this year as well?
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The NaNo graph is seriously the most inspiring graph ever. 😛
I did! And I just managed to hit the 50k by the final day.
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