Tag Archives: NaNoWriMo

NaNoWriMo 2020

Posted on by under meta, NaNoWriMo

Election stress has affected my attention span, but I’m getting caught up. I’m working on a project that started as an idea while I read Halloween books to my daughter. I’m trying something new (for me), which is writing even scenes I know will probably be deleted in future drafts, carrying on even when I’ve done something I know needs to be changed, really embracing “write now, fix it later,” and it’s more fun and less stressful than I expected.

November Madness!

Posted on by under NaNoWriMo

I’m doing NaNoWriMo this year, but since I’m not great at following rules, I’m working on short stories. I still have the 50,000 word goal, I’m just drafting as many stories as I can of ideas that I haven’t gotten around to writing. I’m still optimistic on Day Two, so that’s something. Are you doing NaNoWriMo? What are you working on?

Camp NaNoWriMo Winner!

Posted on by under Camp NaNoWriMo, meta

I set a modest goal of 20,000 words in July, and I’m pleased that I made it. I started a novel, which was a lot of fun to noodle around with. I had the NYC Midnight Flash Fiction Challenge take up one weekend, parenting take up who knows how long, and a few migraine days, but I did manage to produce 20,000 words, which is the most I’ve done in a long time. I like Camp NaNoWriMo because you don’t have to hit an arbitrary goal to “win.” It’s fun to have a cabin of people participating to chat with, and watching the progress bar fill up is satisfying. I don’t think NaNoWriMo (50,000 words in November) is for me. I don’t really enjoy working on one and only one project for that amount of time (I also started a short story during July), and the goal is unrealistic for my current life.

I got much better at just writing without editing as I went. This is a constant struggle. Just producing words as a goal is fantastic for me. I started writing without an outline, just an idea, and I ended up writing scenes I never would have come up with otherwise. I’m now probably ready to outline the novel, having figured out from the characters what they’re going to do. So it was a productive exercise even if it didn’t produce polished writing. Anyway, it was fun, and I’ll do it again.