Well, it looks like it’s that time of year again. The time of year when writers across the globe work diligently to draft an entire novel within the month of November!
2021 will be my first year participating. I actually never heard of NaNo until 2018 and even then I wasn’t interested in it because I didn’t see a need to draft that many words within so little time (part of it was because I didn’t know certain genres had a word count threshold to begin with.)
But in those early years, writing was just mindless fun—much akin to reading and my countless other hobbies. I did it because I liked it and I let enjoyment be my drive. So I found it easy to just sit down and write whatever came to mind.
Now were those stories good? When I look back at them, no. They’re terrible. But back then I thought they were the best stories I’ve ever read. Though the reality is some of them lacked character development, others are unfinished (or just feel unfinished), and a lot of them are simply written in a way that makes me cringe.
But nevertheless, these stories all hold great memories.
Now, these last two years have given me the opportunity to take my writing seriously. And I’ve completed some works that I’m really proud of. But I’ve also been having trouble getting through my passion piece. The editor in me has been kicking my ass, and for every chapter I write, there’s a previous one I feel obligated to rewrite.
So I’m taking the NaNoWriMo challenge in hopes of dumping this fickle habit. Instead of writing an entirely new novel, I’ll be aiming to add 50,000+ words to my current passion piece. Maybe I’ll be able to silence my inner editor once in for all.
Day 1 and I’m already off to a great start. 2148 / 1667 words! Don’t know if I’ll be doing consistent updates during this month, but I’m wishing all writers across the globe a successful NaNoWriMo!
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