I have won NaNoWriMo five times, and it has helped me complete three different novels. The premise behind it is that you write a whole novel, 50,000 words, in a month. It’s a short novel, but still a novel, and I’ve shown that I can do this. You would think I’d be the biggest fan of doing this because, hey, it worked for me, right?
Spoiler: I’m not.
Don’t get me wrong, NaNoWriMo has done great things for me. It has shown me I’m capable of the marathon of a novel, forced me to finish novels, forced me to write at a pace I never thought I could, and has given me multiple first drafts.
Multiple crappy first drafts.
The amount of effort needed to fix my NaNo Novels is… immense.
But more importantly, I need to be able to write when I’m NOT on a deadline. That’s what’s really getting me. I can’t just wait around for one of the events to occur and then drive myself into the ground hitting word count.
I need to be able to sit down daily or weekly or whatever works for me… and write.
I’ve proven time and time again that I can thrive on deadlines, and while they stress me out to ridiculous levels, I always rise to the occasion.
But I don’t write hardly ever when it’s not NaNoWriMo.
That’s NOT COOL.
So this year, I’m plotting my novel during NaNo… but I would have been plotting it regardless. And as soon as I’m done plotting, I’m going to write it.
Without NaNoWriMo.
Without deadlines.
To prove I can.
Have you participated in NaNoWriMo? Did you win? Do you write daily or set goals for yourself outside of NaNo? Inquiring minds want to know!
