{"id":10540,"date":"2015-12-05T16:34:44","date_gmt":"2015-12-05T21:34:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.relishments.com\/blog\/?p=10540"},"modified":"2016-01-02T10:09:24","modified_gmt":"2016-01-02T15:09:24","slug":"i-did-it-and-other-thoughts-on-my-first-nanowrimo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.relishments.com\/blog\/i-did-it-and-other-thoughts-on-my-first-nanowrimo\/","title":{"rendered":"I DID IT! And Other Thoughts on my first NaNoWriMo"},"content":{"rendered":"

This November, I finally accomplished one of the items that\u2019s been on my to do list since at least 2012.\u00a0 I participated in National Novel Writing Month<\/a>. NaNoWriMo, as it is popularly known, has been happening online since 1999 and encourages individuals to write 50,000 words in November.\u00a0 Signing up online connects participants to an awesome support community, plus a place to submit their word count and verify their final total.\u00a0 Reaching 50,000 words makes you a \u201cwinner\u201d in the eyes of NaNoWriMo and from the moment I decided to participate, I had my eyes set on making the goal.<\/p>\n

\"NaNoWriMo<\/a><\/p>\n

Turns out, writing is hard!\u00a0 Though I had good intentions to do some planning \u2013 write an outline, develop my characters \u2013 before November began, I never got around to it.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t really suffer from writer\u2019s block, but I definitely didn\u2019t know where the story was headed.\u00a0 As a result, I often wrote prose I wasn\u2019t thrilled with and in the end, the story didn\u2019t go in a very clear direction and, though I met the word count limit that qualifies me as a \u201cwinner\u201d, my story isn\u2019t finished.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

On the other hand, it was sort of freeing to write fiction that was just for myself.\u00a0 Writing blog posts for the internet means that I choose my words carefully and make efforts to get across specific points.\u00a0 I think about site traffic, page views and whether my posts are Pinterest-friendly.\u00a0 But while working on my novel last month, I was free just to write what came to mind and see where it took me.\u00a0 I knew that I could go back and edit it and that no one needed to see the first draft, so I was able to make decent progress every time I sat down.<\/span><\/p>\n

This project also reminded me of what awesome support I have in my life.\u00a0 Before the project began, I put out some feelers on Facebook, asking my friends who had participated previously if they had any advice.\u00a0 Every single person encouraged me to do NaNoWriMo.\u00a0 My friends at work asked me about how it was going regularly and one woman even joined me in the challenge.\u00a0 Lucy<\/a> texted me every time I posted a new word count achievement on Twitter, encouraging me.\u00a0 My family let me be anti-social during Thanksgiving.\u00a0 My husband cooked meals, ran errands and did dishes so I could stare at my computer screen for hours.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

Falling behind was probably my biggest mistake.\u00a0 I started out the month strongly.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t find it difficult to reach the \u201cpar\u201d of 1667 words a day, but then we went to visit my sister on the first weekend of the month.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t get any time to write for 2 days and I spent the rest of the month trying to catch up. Every day I entered my word count on the NaNoWriMo website, but I was unable to reach the par line again until November 28.\u00a0 I made my goal, but just barely.\u00a0 I spent most of the Saturday after Thanksgiving sitting on the couch at my parents, writing as much as I possibly could.<\/p>\n

\"NaNoWriMo<\/a><\/p>\n

Participating in NaNoWriMo meant that it was really hard to schedule time to do anything else.\u00a0 I knew I needed at least 2-3 hours a day to sit and write if I was going to write at least the target average daily word count.\u00a0 If I had a meeting after school or in the evening, I worried about if I was going to find time to write.\u00a0 I kept my calendar as clear as possible, which meant that I was scrambling to get the Christmas presents prepped to bring to my parents at Thanksgiving and that there were a lot of other things that didn\u2019t get done.\u00a0 Blogging, keeping the house clean, menu planning and food prep all fell by the wayside.\u00a0 My to do list and house are still recovering, though I spent the past week working hard to chip away at all the things I hadn\u2019t gotten to.\u00a0 As the month wore on, there were more and more days where I just wanted to come home from work and do nothing \u2013 maybe just watch Netflix or play a game.\u00a0 Anything but write.\u00a0 But I knew that wasn\u2019t a choice.\u00a0 It was freeing to know that these things in my life (as well as the stuff mentioned above) are optional, but I missed having the option to do them.<\/p>\n

Now that November is over, I kind of miss working on my story.\u00a0 It\u2019s still unfinished, but I\u2019m taking a break in the hopes that I\u2019ll be inspired about where I want the plot to go.\u00a0 That, and I\u2019d like to actually have a conversation with my husband and maybe cook a real meal.\u00a0 But I had a lot of fun creating characters and writing fiction.<\/p>\n

After I won, I got an email from NaNoWriMo that included the following, \u201cEvery day of this past month, you chose your novel, your voice, and your story. You stayed up late or got up early. You stole minutes here and there. You created <\/em>time.\u201d\u00a0 This is what I\u2019m billing as my number one lesson from NaNoWriMo, right about \u201cyou are capable of things you didn\u2019t think you were able to do\u201d.\u00a0 I have written many blog posts about my quest to make more time and do more things and be more organized.\u00a0 NaNoWriMo taught me that it\u2019s possible to make time for things that I view as really important and unimportant things can be skipped without major consequences.\u00a0 I made the choice to get this project done and that choice helped me do something incredible.\u00a0 The writing itself is not incredible; if I ever want to do anything with it I need to write some closure and then do some serious editing.\u00a0 But I wrote over 80 pages of prose because I chose my novel, despite frequent complaints that I don\u2019t have time.\u00a0 I do have time for things that are important.<\/p>\n

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