NaNoWriMo 2018

Hello! Today I want to talk about NaNoWriMo!

If you’re unfamiliar, NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month, where during the month of November, hundreds of thousands of people attempt to write a 50,000 word novel! It started back in 1999, and there were 21 participants. Last year in 2017, there were over 400,000. If you would like to learn more, here is the NaNoWriMo official site, and here is me! Add me if you plan on participating!

I’ve been participating every year since 2008 (Though my user account shows only participation since 2011. I think it’s because my first three years were such utter failures but that’s ok). I can’t skip out now, even if I end up failing, I still need to at least try.

I’ve won NaNoWriMo three out of the seven times shown on my profile, and I plan to (try) to win again this year. After last year’s attempt though, the need for me to change my approach is very dire. Usually, I’m a pantser – I don’t really outline and just take an idea and go by the seat of my pants. The problem with that is, the past five years or so, I’ve been attempting to rewrite a novel idea I first had in 2010. Each year I tell myself that ‘this didn’t come out how you wanted it to last year, so try it again’ and each year I go in with a vague idea of what I want, and then hey, it still doesn’t turn out.

So this year, I do plan on rewriting, but I’m going to do it planner- style. During October, I will be outlining and making character sheets to the best of my abilities. I’m hoping it’ll result in at least a first draft that I will let see the light of day. So wish me luck! I really like this story idea – it’s stuck in my head for nearly a decade now – so I hope I can do it justice this year. All I can tell you really is that it’s about a lighthouse keeper and it’s a fantasy.

There will be one obstacle to my goal: I will be out of town between October 27th and November 3rd, and during those first three NaNo days, I won’t really have the opportunity to write. So I’m going to attempt to do a lot of catch-up on the 4th, and keep even from there. That’s the goal, buuuut from looking at past attempts, I tend to flounder until the last three or four days, and then I churn out 5 or 6k words per day at the very end and hit the goal way closer to midnight than I am comfortable with. So here’s hoping future-me stays motivated.

Also, writing this novel means that this blog will be taking a bit of a hit. Instead of three or four posts per week, I’m going to drop to two: Wednesdays and Saturdays. When NaNoWriMo is over, I’ll be hoping right into Blogmas 2018, so there will be a post every single day in the month of December to make up for it. So I’m ok with it, averaging out.

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I think that’s about everything I wanted to say. If you’re in the western Pennsylvania region and plan on participating, let me know! I love participating in write-ins and I don’t mind driving a bit to a public place. Also if you’re participating period, add me on the NaNo site!

Happy writing!