It's writing time: Happy NaNoWriMo y'all!
Autumn is undoubtedly the best season. Don't get me wrong; I do not mean my favorite season. I mean that fall, objectively speaking, is the absolute best time of the calendar/seasonal/pagan year whatever that might entail for you.Nothing goes quite so well with crisp air, golden yellow leaves and hygge-rific clothing styles like an inspirational quest to write.Enter: NaNoWriMoNational Novel Writing Month, loving called by NaNoWriMo by all those in the know, is a month dedicated to writing. Whatever that might entail for you. (See what I did there?) It's not a race, or a competition. It's a feel-good, community-based activity that you can do a little or a lot of. You can shout it from the rooftops (aka Twitter) or you can climb into your little hole and descend into your couch cushions and not tell a soul that you're hard at work, clacking away on your computer, dreaming up your opus.
I've done NaNoWriMo just once before, 2013. I hit the 50,000 word goal, exceeding it just slightly by just 224 clocking in at 50,224. What a time! What a feeling! Of course, the end product was rubbish. Utter trash. But you live, you learn. Amirite?Actually, the end result was over 260 unedited pages of a nonfiction, memoirist grouping of essays about the romantic mishaps in my life. Complete with silly pseudonyms and raw emotion. It's angsty. It's funny. It's collecting digital dust on an external hard drive tucked away somewhere deep in my drawers. But I did the damn thing, ya know?This year, I'm going to ride that NaNoWriMo train in the hopes of getting the majority of a first draft out of my newest project. I'm calling it UNEVEN. There's a double entendre in that working title because, let's face it, if I'm writing a book then the title will very likely be punny and have multiple meanings and layers. It's just who I am.The beauty of the month-long festivities, usually conducted via forums on the site and via hashtag following, is the support from strangers and friends alike. NaNo is an amazing thing. It's been around for awhile now and doesn't have a cult following, it has a mass following. The month can serve a multitude of purposes.Such as:
- Jumpstarting a brand new project
- Helping you kick your own ass to test out a project or new genre you've been toying with
- Kicking your existing project into high gear with daily word count goals and a looming end-of-month deadline
- It's fun! That is, if you like to write
So what are you waiting for? Are you doing NaNoWriMo this year? Do you have any fun, hilarious, weird, crazy stories about the virtual writing pilgrimage so many of us journey on during November? Share it with the world, in my comments, obviously. Happy writing, everyone!