Happy NaNoWriMo!
November 1, 2011
7 Comments
It’s November 1st! Are you doing NaNoWriMo?
I’m still not sure. I’m writing this October 31st (last night) at 6:43, so I still have 5 hours and 17 minutes to make up my mind. I fist-bumped Elizabeth Boyle this weekend that I’d do NaNo with her, which I think may possibly be as binding as a blood oath, so it’s likely that I’ll do it for fear I may, like, lose my soul to some otherworldly being or something if I back out.
If you’re unfamiliar with NaNoWriMo, this stands for National Novel Writing Month. It takes place every November and consists of sacrificing your entire life for a month to the writing gods committing to writing 50,000 words on a new novel in a month. Sounds scary, huh? It is.
Well, it seemed like it would be that first year I did it anyway. That was two years ago, and the idea of carving out time to write 1667 words a day for 30 straight days (even with Sundays and Thanksgiving off) seemed horribly daunting. But I decided to give it a shot. There were days I seriously questioned my sanity.
But I met my goal. I wrote 50,000 words. They weren’t all good words. In fact some of them were downright awful. But I learned a HUGE lesson that month:
I DO HAVE TIME.
No matter how often I bemoan how little time I have to write, no matter how many times I repeat the excuse to anyone who challenges me to get cracking on whatever I’m writing and stop trying to justify my procrastination…I DO have time.
I bet you do, too.
It’s not easy. I’m not trying to tell you it is. And I would never want to keep up the frenetic pace of NaNo beyond a month, or maybe two months (spaced very far apart), a year. At least not while working a full-time job and taking care of a family. If I wrote full time, I think 50,000 words a month could be achieved more often.
Succeeding at NaNo is a sacrifice. I gave up some television (made possible through the miracle of TiVo). My appalling housekeeping practices went even further downhill. I may have skipped the occasional shower and the odd hour or three of beauty sleep.
But I wrote 50,000-freaking words. In a month. No matter how you look at that, that’s awesome. Even if I’d only written 35,000, or 25,000, thus not “winning” by NaNo rules, it would have been a success, as it would have been 35,000 or 25,000 more than I’d had before November.
Adapting the Rules to Make it Work for YOU
I’m not typically a rule-breaker…except when I am. The first year I did NaNo, I did it strictly by the book. I signed up, declaring my intentions publicly. I wrote 50,000 words on a new book (new being the critical part). I submitted the pages for verification before midnight on November 30, and got my badge to prove I had “won.”
Last year, I wasn’t even planning on doing NaNo. I didn’t have a new book to write. I’d broken up with my agent, so was feeling depressed. But then I had an idea. I’d cheat. I would do NaNo, but write 50,000 words worth of blog posts for my soon-to-be website, The Happy Writer, instead of work on a new book. I didn’t officially sign up (since I was cheating), so I never had my success verified by NaNoWriMo officials. But still. I damn did it.
Did it matter that I didn’t follow the official rules? Maybe. But not to me. To me it only mattered that I dedicated November to my writing, to stretching myself outside of my usual boundaries. I pushed myself.
We should all push ourselves sometimes. It’s good for the soul and the self-confidence.
This month if I do NaNo, which I’m pretty sure I will, since I’d kinda like to keep my soul, plus Elizabeth Boyle scares me just a little bit, I’ll be writing 50,000 words. Some may be blog posts (since I have been slacking off while writing 2 workshops and a magazine article). Some may be on my current book project (which I’ve been slacking off on while writing 2 workshops and a magazine article). Some may be for my ShannonMcKelden blog (which may be so neglected that aliens have taken it over).
But I think I’ve got 50,000 words in there somewhere. I may just have to stretch a bit to find them.
So, how about it? Are you NaNo’ing? If you are, I’ll make sure to post some encouragement throughout the month.
Image credit: owlbookdreams
Related posts:
Not this year. I won two yeasrs ago with Houdini’s Daughter and am now waiting for edits on that very manuscript. But you are right… we have much more time than we think we do!
Teri
Woot, Teri! You’re one of those fab examples of the great things that can happy with a NaNo manuscript! Congrats, again, my friend. I’m so excited to read Houdini’s Daughter!
I’m not doing it this year either…but as you remember from my guest post here a dog’s age ago, I have nothing against NANO. It got me back into writing and for that I am extremely grateful. My favorite NaNoWriMo story is: that November a few years ago I was talking to someone at the gym about NaNo and she said, “My son has a friend who not only did it, she’s the one who WON it…” I had to grin. (For any of you who don’t know everyone who completes 50K words gets a WINNER certificate…Winning just means finishing.)
Looking forward to a few more blogposts from you in November, right??? You gotta put all those words somewhere…
Melissa recently posted..into the woods…
Yep, you will get more posts from me in November, I pinky swear!
And that’s great about “She was the one who WON!” You know, if everyone felt like THE winner who wrote 50,000 words in NaNo, it would be SOOOO worth it. Great boost of confidence. :)
You fist bumped Elizabeth. That’s as good as a signed contract. Go you!
Erin E. recently posted..Who said all multi-tasking is bad?
See that’s where my terror comes in. I know she’ll come down on me hard if I pretend it never happened. LOL!
Oh, yeh, that’s a signed contract, baby! But I consider you the goddess in this department because you’ve done this before. I just have all that newbie euphoria going for me.