NaNoWriMo is here and across the world authors are buckling down for an intense 30 days of output. That doesn’t include me. In the future, who knows? Right now I am a) a slow writer, still very new to this game and b) in furious editing mode. The editing brain is very different from the producing brain and right now I need my inner editor more.
As I’m not participating and have not participated before I can’t answer the Insecure Writer’s Support Group question:
Win or not, do you usually finish your NaNo project? Have any of them gone on to be published?
If you have an answer to this I would be extremely interested in reading it, so link away in the comments. If you’d like to join in the blog hop, go here.
Your co-hosts for this month are Tonja Drecker, Diane Burton, MJ Fifield and Rebecca Douglass (The Ninja Librarian-and I love that title. It should be an official thing, like the Knights of the Round Table, but for writers. We could earn belts and wear patches and sneak into libraries to leave free books for unsuspecting passerby.)
In defense of National Novel Writing Month, it seems to be the kind of fire that really works for some authors. They like the challenge, the reward of updating that word count every day, the gauntlet of it. Something about having that fizzing fuse running out behind them lights up their creativity and they’re dashing through the days. Which is awesome. If it works for you I’d love to hear how, and why.
It’s not the kind of thing that works for me and honestly I’m not sure I’ll ever participate. I’m happy turtling along with my 1,000 daily word count goal every month of the year. That doesn’t mean I can’t cheer you on though. I’ve got my digital pom-poms and glitter cannon all ready to go. Write away my friends, and let me know how it’s going on your blog so I can send you many sincere happy emoticons. Meanwhile I’ll be stalking all the answers to this month’s question by other insecure writers.
featured image: stocksnap.io & Ben Cheung
This is my first year attempting NaNoWriMo, and first attempt at writing a novel. I have no idea how it will be come the end of the month, but right now it seemed like a good challenge to make myself write everyday. Challenges motivate me more than anything so I think it might just work for me. Good luck with your editing!
http://melsemptyjournal.blogspot.com/2017/11/nanowrimo.html
Good for you! Hope your rock it. And thanks ๐
I’ve always responded to extrinsic motivators. Not only do I have a nasty competitive streak, but I’m also driven to not disappoint other folks. Not necessarily a good thing under some circumstances, I know. You shouldn’t call 1k/day “slow writing.” I’d be thrilled if I averaged 1k every day. I manage it during NaNo (by cheating my butt off, which I wrote about in my IWSG response to this question prompt), and for a while afterward I keep up with it. Inevitably, though, I fall off the word wagon. You seem to have a great daily writing practice established. Good for you. Thanks for sharing and happy writing to you! ๐
I’ll head over and read that. It’s a bold move to try NaNoWriMo whether you fall off the wagon or not, so I salute you!
First, I love your idea about making library Ninja-ism an official thing ๐ And thanks for the kind words.
Second: if you are writing 1000 words a day, month in and month out until a book is done, you don’t need NaNo. You have the idea down very well, in my opinion!
What works for me with NaNo is the pressure (yes, even that!) that helps me really power through and get the draft to the end while I still remember the beginning ๐ And I do like the graphics for the word count. I bet I can find something like that to use to urge me along without the rest of NaNo, which to be honest, I mostly ignore.
I like the idea of the graphics as my carrot. That would be good to look into. And thanks!
I’m one of those authors who loves the NaNoWriMo challenge. I don’t always win, but I really love to try. And I really hate to lose, which I’m sure helps. ๐
Competitiveness is the PERFECT thing to have for a competition, no wonder your sidebar is full of wins! Haha ๐ Good luck this year!