I love NaNoWriMo.
I’ve participated nearly every year since 2015. It works for me because my first drafts are quick and dirty anyway - perfect for this event. The idea is to curb procrastination and self-doubt because you don’t have time to dwell on those things - you have to get the words down.
For those who don’t know, NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month (but it’s very much international.) The goal is to write 50,000 words in the 30 days of November (that’s about 1,667 words a day!) It’s free to join, with heaps of resources at your fingertips and a handy goal tracker online. It’s not a competition or a race - you do it for yourself and your novel.
I didn’t originally have plans to participate this year, but as we reached the end of September and the buzz started once again, I gave into my FOMO. This year I’m doing things a little differently, though.
Usually, I’m a stickler when it comes to NaNoWriMo - I have one novel and I write 50,000 words on the first draft of that novel. This year, though, I’m deep in the universe of my latest writing project - the Everwolf Chronicles - so I’ve decided to spend 50,000 words there wherever I can.
The Everwolf Chronicles is a middle-grade fantasy following 12 year old Callum and his supernatural wolf pup, Thistlepaw. I’m still working on the pitch, but the series includes good vs evil, greedy kings, friendship, family, making mistakes, growing up and, of course, lots and lots of magical wolves.
The idea of this story world is that there are five novels and several short stories in between that serve as missing moments, developing characters and relationships, introducing other everwolf species, and just generally fulfilling my love of content. Would this have made the perfect TV show or graphic novel series? Yes. But unfortunately, prose is all I gots.
The first book is in its second draft which I’m hoping to complete by the end of October. So for NaNoWriMo, the plan is something like this:
3000 word first drafts of 10 short stories
20,000 words on the first draft of the second book
I can’t start NaNoWriMo without a plan, so the short stories and the second book have as much detail to them as I could think of. I dread hitting a block during November.
Because I’ve done NaNoWriMo several times, I’ve developed my own traditions. Here are some of the essentials:
Taking myself out to a cafe or library and writing there
Usually this calendar, but unfortunately it doesn’t look like 2023 is being updated so I made my own below (I like physically writing down the day’s word count)
I don’t have high hopes of reaching 50,000 words, mostly due to time. But I figure, any words in November are good and at least NaNoWriMo gives me the freedom to write extra terribly and manic, as long as I get those words down.
I’ll be posting updates on my Instagram if you’d like to follow along. I’d love to connect so we can cheer each other on!
Sounds amazing Bianca! I'm cheering you on. Love that you have a plan, I'm going to sketch one out today. Good luck!