It’s the last week of October, which can only mean one thing… It’s almost time for NaNoWriMo!
I’m really excited about NaNoWriMo this year, more than I’ve ever been before. See, even though I’m an “active writer” and even have my MFA in Creative Writing (not needed for writing, but see the point I’m about to make) I must have been living under a rock – because I had never heard of National Novel Writing Month until 2013. And my peers in grad school have participated for years! In 2013, I found out later into the month, so while I wanted to participate, and even signed up, I still missed out and never got started. Last year I was ready and did participate and it really wasn’t what I thought it would be, or do what I thought it would do.
This will be my second year participating in National Novel Writing Month, and I’m much more excited/prepared/focused/determined/wise this time around than I was last year. I like to think that last year’s participation taught me a few things too.
Make no mistake, last year I achieved my goal. I finished with 50,117 words on a novel I had been thinking of/inspired to write/procrastinating on for about six years. I was excited to dive in, and really have that be the start, so I could finally knock a draft of the novel out. But while I reached my 50,000 words by the end of the month, my larger goal of having it kickstart my novel never really panned out. And I know the reason why.
