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<\/a><\/div>\nOctober is the lead up to the annual craziness that is National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). For those not familiar with NaNoWriMo, the goal is to write a 50,000 word novel starting November 1 and ending November 30. \u00a0I completed NaNoWriMo last year and it was so much fun that I am finding it hard to resist this year.<\/p>\n
Why would anyone set a goal of writing 50,000 words in a month? For me, it was just to see if I could do it. I have no problem coming up with stories, my problem was not putting writing first.<\/p>\n
So many other things in our lives compete for out attention: partners, children, work, pets, television, movies, books, sports, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. What NaNoWriMo did was force me to keep to a schedule. In order to finish I had to make my word goal for the week, no matter what. I learned to let things go, to not stress about anything except getting words on paper during the month of November.<\/p>\n
It helped that my partner was traveling for most of the month of November, so I had evenings free after the kids went to sleep. I created an outline and some character sketches, as well as a daily word\/weekly word count calendar before the contest started. I was not able to attend any of the local meetings with other participants, but was supported by a robust on-line community, and another friend that was doing NaNoWriMo.<\/p>\n
I was asked by a fellow writer “Why? Why do it? What will you get out of it?”
\nI thought that I would just get the satisfaction of meeting a goal, and having 50,000 words to work with, but I ended up with so much more by completing NaNoWriMo.<\/p>\n
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<\/a><\/div>\nI had a fun. Real, honest to goodness fun, writing. I did not edit myself. \u00a0I didn’t worry about what anyone would think. I just kept going, and did not look back.<\/p>\n
I had not written that freely in years. I remembered how to write fast. Something I had learned writing my master’s thesis and forgotten.<\/p>\n
If you are a writer, or think you would like to be, give \u00a0NaNoWriMo a shot. If you don’t make your goal, you are the only one who will know. If you finish your novel, you get so much more than just a cool computer badge that says that you did.<\/p>\n
NaNoWriMo is a great organization that encourages and supports creative writing for kids and adults. Check out their website \u00a0http:\/\/nanowrimo.org<\/a>\u00a0 and sign up while you are at it. I will be cheering for you.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" October is the lead up to the annual craziness that is National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). For those not familiar with NaNoWriMo, the goal is to write a 50,000 word novel starting November 1 and ending November 30. \u00a0I … Continue reading