A little over a year ago, I heard about this thing called National Novel Writing Month, a.k.a. NaNoWriMo. It sounded like a crazy idea. Therefore, I had to try it.
In November 2015 I participated in my first NaNoWriMo. Holy crap. I loved it. Not just because I managed to reach the goal of 50,000 words in 23 days, but because it felt like such a major personal accomplishment. I had been afraid of trying creative writing up to that point. NaNoWriMo gave me a reason to say, “To hell with the fear, I’m going to do this!” It was like I grew up a little bit that month and dealt with something I had been afraid of for a long time.
In addition to helping me get over the fear of creative writing, I love NaNoWriMo because it provides a deadline for getting a story written. I tend to be a perfectionist, though I have been working on getting over this. The perfectionist in me desperately wanted to go back and rework almost everything I wrote. But I was able to tell her to hush, let me get the words out to the computer within the 30 days, and she’d get her chance to edit later. And I was pleased to go back and not hate what I wrote. It was pretty not bad for a first attempt at a first draft. It was crappy like any first draft, but crap that could be worked with. The perfectionist in me has been happy to bleed red ink on the pages to make the story better (yes, I went old school and printed the first draft to edit).
Finally, I love NaNoWriMo because it is a massive rush. I have been a pantser the past two years, which just means I did very little planning and am writing by the seat of my pants. So it is a ton of fun to watch the story unfold and take turns I wasn’t even expecting. The characters also start to take on a life of their own and behave in interesting ways.
Well, speaking of NaNoWriMo, I’m behind on my word count and need to get back to my story. Can’t wait to see what the characters will do next!