I’m participating in my local writing chapter’s version of
NaNoWriMo this month. NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month, is
held in November each year and participants write 50K words in a month. It’s a
huge undertaking and I’ve never done it before.
However, my local writing chapter has adapted it to
JeRoWriMo—Jersey Romance Writers Month. Every February, we write 30K words.
Still a huge undertaking, but doable, even if the month is shorter. Basically,
it boils down to a little more than 1,000 words per day.
I love participating in the challenge because it gives me a
clear goal every day that I have to hit. We email our word counts to our head
cheerleader (who also happens to be one of my critique partners) and at the end
of the month, everyone who has successfully completed the challenge wins
chocolate.
Seriously—public deadlines, head cheerleader whom I know and
chocolate at the end? It’s perfect for me.
This time around, my goal is to finish a manuscript I’ve
been working on. It was at approximately 50K when I started, so it will be
complete by the end of the month. Not sure exactly why I’m bothering, as
absolutely nothing is happening right now with my writing, but hey, I can
always store it somewhere and know it’s complete.
Writing during the week is pretty easy, as no one is home to
distract me. On the weekends? That’s another story. This weekend, I hid, and I
was able to complete each day’s goal, despite not being allowed to count the
words in the multiple texts with my husband who was at the grocery store. Next
weekend I’ll be gone, so I’m trying to write extra words before I leave. And by
the time I come back, half the month will be over!
Forcing myself to write and to turn off my internal editor
is a challenge, as it is for all the participants. I’ll have to go back in
March and significantly edit what I’ve written, but I’ll be a lot further along
than I was when I started. And working on this manuscript regularly allowed me
to plot the ending, something I wasn’t sure of when I started.
So if you need me, I’ll be writing!
I did the Camp NaNoWriMo last year in July. It's run by NaNoWriMo but in the camp version, you can change the word count goal. I dropped mine to 20,000 and just made it. A lot less daunting than 50K and a great place to start for my first attempt at a novel.
ReplyDeleteI did the Camp NaNoWriMo last year in July. It's run by NaNoWriMo but in the camp version, you can change the word count goal. I dropped mine to 20,000 and just made it. A lot less daunting than 50K and a great place to start for my first attempt at a novel.
ReplyDelete