Happy NaNoWriMo to all my fellow participants! How are you doing so far on Day Two? And to all non-participants or anyone who has no idea what NaNoWriMo is, Happy November Second! How are you on this fine day?
For those who don’t know what NaNoWriMo is, it is National Novel Writing Month. During the month of November, thousands of people participate in this writing challenge to reach 50,000 words in 30 days. For more about NaNoWriMo, you can check out their website here.
I participated in NaNo last year which is when I wrote the first draft of Brave Young Boys. I didn’t reach the goal of 50,000 words, but I did make it to 35,870 which I was really proud of. This year my only real goal is to get high than that. Even if I don’t reach 50,000 words I would like to at least reach 35,871.
In order to reach whatever word goal you have a lot of people set a daily goal. Typically, if you’re trying to reach 50,000 words in 30 days, you need to write at least 1,666 words. However, a lot of people like to set their own word goals, whether it be 2000 per day or 1000 on day one, 2000 on day two, and so on. For me it’s usually just writing as much as I can.
Well, now you know what NaNoWriMo is and a little about the word goal, but why do it? Why subject yourself to the pressure of writing 50,000 words in 30 days? Well first off, it’s fun. It really is. I know it sounds like a lot of work (which it also is), but at the end of the day it’s just fun to sit down and create something. The second reason is that feeling you get at the end. It doesn’t matter how many words you reached whether it be 50,000 or 15,000 or 5,000. You wrote those words. You sat down and wrote them and that feeling of accomplishment is something you will always have. Finally, the third reason is that you may make something out of it. Who knows, you could write the next great novel, the one kids will learn about in school however many years from now. Whatever your reason is for doing NaNoWriMo, just make sure to remember that you like what you’re writing. You may not like certain aspects of it, but make sure you like the story itself because if you don’t then your readers might not either.
I’m going to be posting updates on my currently untitled young adult novel ever Saturday and I’d love to hear from you guys too!
Are you participating in NaNoWriMo this year? What type of novel are you working on? Do you have any word count goals?
J. Carson Writes 