NaNoWriMo 2023 Reflections
Hello heroes! I just wanted to check in with everyone now that National Novel Writing Month is behind us. NaNoWriMo is an amazing challenge that comes up every November. The goal is to write 50,000 words in 30 days, and it is a lot more difficult than it looks. I personally have attempted it five times so far and I’ve only won the first time. Turns out working professionally as a writer means you get your attention split a lot of different ways. Even though I didn’t win, I always appreciate making the attempt. This was our first year attempting it as an organization and I’m very proud of everyone who spent time writing this month, whether they made the goal or not. The pure task of writing is so vital and empowering that I truly believe everyone should attempt it, whether they do it for money or just personal exploration. We hosted several write-in streams as a group which provided space to share writing tips, triumphs, and to commiserate the challenges.
I may not have finished the project I set out to do, but I did get a ton of writing done and I got to share some of my wisdom and experience with my friends. It was a great time! I am hopeful that we will put together another team next year and maybe I’ll even win this time! I am planning to write a hilarious project that I’ve had on my backburner for a while; a novel involving a vampire named Gary who has to search the post-apocalypse for fruit farms to feed upon.
We did have one person who won this year! Aunt Puppy went the distance and finished the rough draft of her first ever novel! A story she wrote about her new character from our Something in the Dark stream: Dr. Carrie Pembroke. I asked her if she would write up some of her thoughts about the experience, which I’ve included below.
“Well first off I want to start by saying it was hard, but dammit did this girl win! As someone who is a completist and a collector the best fuel I had was me vs me. I collected badges and steps like a champ. Then it hit me, the holidays and SAD all at once which dropped my productivity.
Overall I enjoyed it. I was a writer of poetry when I was younger and this really helped to feel the spark again. I loved the community that it introduced me to, with this being my first experience I still had some anxiety about meeting up or participating in any live events but I think as I try again I will get braver and participate in more events. As the month went along I learned that short bursts, or what the group called a sprint, was the most effective. The sprints were done in our local Discord group and were done in 20 minute increments. I really enjoyed the feeling of competition and encouragement those brought on, if it weren’t for that I would have never finished.
I can see how people can become easily disillusioned with everything very quickly. It feels very daunting when you start to fall behind. I think if I would have stayed the path and hit my goal each day I would not have felt so overwhelmed but there were some days that the creativity just didn’t hit me. I will say some great advice I got from some of our USP veterans that have participated in NaNoWriMo before was to not edit, which goes against my nature but if I had gone back and really edited I wouldn’t have gotten as far as I did.
In conclusion, would I do it again? Hell ya and you should too!”
I don’t have anything more to add other than to second her last statement. Hell yeah you should give NaNoWriMo a chance. The world needs more stories and all of you have at least one in you.
