Posts tagged ‘nanowrimo’

I’m Not Doing NamoWrimo, but maybe you should?

There’s a lot of controversy this year surrounding National Novel Writing Month. There has been plenty written (and discussed on YouTube), so if you want to know the ins and outs of the story, I urge you to look it up. I’ve never really been a fan of the challenge, but I do see where there are some advantages.

The first is community. Writing is a lonely activity and joining a community of like-minded people is comforting. I think that one of the primary reasons I continue to write is because I have a critique group and took classes off and on throughout my city. Also, I have recently joined the author community on YouTube (here’s my channel). Having encouragement and people who push you to continue on with your writing will help you overall your career.

The next advantage concerns how far you are in your writing life. If you’re just starting out and you always wanted to write something, this may be a perfect opportunity to try. All you have to do is commit for 30 days. This can test your stamina and whether or not you are really ready to embark on this adventure called a writing life.

For some this is exciting. For others, this is exhausting. Either way, writing challenges are not for the weak! A few years ago, I did the one year, one hundred rejection challenge. It pushed me to submit a lot (and I did get an acceptance). It also numbed me to the sting of rejection. It never feels good, but I also realized it wasn’t the end of the world if a story came back rejected. Also a few weeks ago, I tried the “Write 10K in a Day” challenge. I only got about four thousand words, but still, almost quadruple what I normally write, so I think that was pretty good for a first try.

The biggest reason, I don’t to NamoWrimo is… well, I haven’t really focused on writing a novel for most of my career. I tried writing one from March 2020 to March 2022, but that was a failure. I’m back at it again, but I’m also writing (and rewriting) other stories as well. Since most of my writing has been short stories, if I were to try and write for the challenge, that would be 10? (or more) stories in one month. That’s a lot for me. I don’t think I could stick with that and would probably burn out.

And we are not trying to burn ourselves out from writing.

If you have a solid routine and you’re getting after your work, forcing yourself to do a challenge that may hinder your writing is a bad idea. Nothing wrong with trying if you want to, but only you know for sure. Funny, I actually don’t know a lot of writers who do it. We’ve all just been plunking away at our own pace and aren’t really to embark on a change for a whole month.

Because of the controversy this year, some are choosing to write, but not participate formally with the organization, or they started new challenges (which I love). So I guess the bottom line is do what is best for your writing career. Ultimately, it is you and the page. Whatever is the best way for you to grow and create is the answer.

Me? I’m focusing on getting this first draft of this novel done by December 31st. I’ll be doing another 10K day on Black Friday (the day after Thanksgiving here in the US) and try like hell to push as many words as I can for the next few weeks. Between this blog, the new channel, and my fiction, my plate is full.

Happy writing everyone. Stay safe this holiday season!