My Experience as a National Novel Writing Month Participant
First, What is NaNoWriMo?
Have you ever dreamed of being a writer, but just couldn’t sit down long enough to pound out that novel on the keyboard? Or maybe when you did get started, your inner editor took over after the first paragraph and you spend the next three weeks re-writing the first sentence. National Novel Writing Month is an adrenaline filled 30 day experience to bring out the author in everybody. The goal of the contest is to write 50,000 words of fiction during the month of November. It comes down to about 1,667 words per day. That’s it.
My experience as a NaNoWriMo contestant
In October 2006, I got onto the NaNo website and signed up for the fun. November 1 came and I was off with full enthusiasm, but not nearly enough words.
Around November 8, I broke the cardinal rule of NaNoWriMo. I let my inner editor back into my head and decided my story was crap and I would write a different one.
Three-thousand words later, I called my mom and we re-evicted my inner editor. I went back to writing my original story.
November 11, I got sick. I took a few days off work. While I was at home, I got some writing done on my story.
November 13, I went back to work.
I was working at the public library at the time. Brenton refers to the library as the Public Germ collection. The books get sent off all over the county to pick up all the germs in North Idaho and then the librarians have to touch and clean every single book before it gets put back out on the shelf.
November 14, I was sick again. This time it was worse, but I was still able to get in my words. as I got better I put in a few 10,000 word days to catch back up to the recommended word count.
Right before Thanksgiving, I went back to work a the library. Over a few weeks, I had developed a terrible pain in my neck. Thanksgiving day, I could barely turn my head because of a pinched nerve.
Two days after Thanksgiving, I was sick again. I called in to the Library and turned in my 2 week notice.
I had less than 5,000 words to write before I reached the 50,000 word goal. I had a horrible head cold and chest congestion. My neck hurt, and I had aches down my arms. I couldn’t sit in my chair more than 30 minutes at a time.
For the last week of November, nothing besides sheer determination pulled me through to 50,000 words–30 min at a time.
November 30th finally came, I dragged myself across the finish line fighting tooth and nail. 50,027 verified and I got my winners badge, then I lay down on the couch and went back to sleep.
Reflections after NaNoWriMo
Participating in National Novel Writing Month ended up being a much bigger challenge than I anticipated. Aside from the psychological challenges of getting rid of my perfectionism and evicting my inner editor, I fought with physical illness the whole month of November.
Still, finishing was very rewarding. I followed my dream of writing a novel, and I proved to myself that I could finish something if I really put my mind to it.
Finishing National Novel Writing Month was a major step in quitting my job and pursuing my writing dreams full time.
Living life without a dream is sad, but knowing your dream and never following it is much sadder.
Particpating and finishing NaNoWriMo was the first step along the path my dreams are taking me.
December 17th, 2007 at 1:09 pm
I enjoyed reading about your experience with NaNoWriMo. I did it for the first time this year. I went in with few expectations, but found it to be very inspirational and also liberating.
When you wrote about your internal editor stepping into your draft, I could relate! It was very hard, especially in the beginning to keep my editor out. I didn’t expect this, since I regularly do free-writes. Something about it being “a novel” made my editor very snoopy!
I didn’t end up with a novel, so much as part of a novel mixed in with a bunch of things that could be developed into short stories or who knows what else. I sure had fun, though, and felt very satisfied when I crossed the finish line.
Hurray to you for quitting your job in order to write!
Tui
p.s. I found you via the Carnival of Creative Growth. I submitted an article called “Write Yourself a Permission Slip,” did you happen to see it?
December 18th, 2007 at 8:45 am
Thanks for your kind comment. There is something very satisfying about writing 50,000 words in one month. I read your permission slip article. Sometimes we do have to give ourselves permission to enjoy life.