I've just completed my second year of NaNoWriMo. I didn't finish last year (my total was just over 18,000 words) and I didn't win this year (my total was 41,081 words). But, I've learned from doing it and I'll continue to do it.
Number 1: I’m a writer, not a novelist I’ve tried a lot of times to write a novel [APOSTLE and PRINCESS] is probably the one people remember best (or at least Julie). It’s still not done. And it probably never will be. Or not for years. I’m just not a novelist. But, I’m a fair hand at short stories. I don’t know exactly why this is, but I think it has something to do with the fact that I get bored with the story. Or the characters. Or I’m just not writing fast enough. So, I drop the ideas. I might be able to change this, but I enjoy writing short stories. And I think I’m pretty good at it. So, I’m not going to try and be something I’m not. I have some ideas for this, but I need to generate more content. Number 2: I can’t write every day Writing every day feels like a chore. When I write every day, I actually write less per hour. It just can’t do it. So, I don’t. I can write fairly quickly, usually 1k an hour, when I’m on a roll. When I really get into it, I can write several thousand words an hour. But, if I write everyday, I’ll write 500 words in an hour, just write for an hour, and walk away. So, I’m not going to try anymore. I write when I can, when I can’t do anything else, and be much more productive in the long run. Number 3: I have to feel strongly about what I’m working on Last year, 2016, I didn’t feel like trying one of my ideas I’d already come up with. The whole point of NaNoWriMo is to write a brand new novel, right? Well, it didn’t work for me. Over the course of a whole month, I wrote less than 19k words. Mind you, there were a lot of other factors that held me back, but having an idea I hadn’t fully fleshed out certainly didn’t help things. So, I’m going to pick old projects for the various NaNoWriMo things. And I’m not even going to feel bad about it. Number 4: Friendly competition is good By nature, I’m a very competitive person. I can be really bad about it. Like, almost violently so. So, I avoid it. Really, what I hate is losing. Really hate it. Because I lose a lot. But, this year, I challenged my friend Lindsey to a friendly competition. And I think it helped both of us. Because we both needed it. I’ve also been informally competing against my writing group. And it’s really been driving me to write as much as I can. I’ll probably fail NaNoWriMo every year, but at least I’m getting words down. And that’s the real victory.
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