In 2010, I discovered NaNoWriMo, which is where writers try to write 50,000 words of creative fiction in a month. I took part in it and successfully completed a 52,000 word story. This year, 2017, I decided to do it again and, once again, I was successful. This time I wrote 50,000 words or so, but the story I was writing is still incomplete. I hope that I find the motivation to finish and edit that soon. Here are a few of my thoughts on my second attempt:
- For me, the second try was an awful lot easier than the first try. I wonder if I’ve just become a faster writer?
- I realise now that when you choose a specific project to be your main focus for NaNoWriMo, your other projects suffer a bit. In my case, it was this blog and my webcomic. Two things I didn’t have in 2010.
- Every day felt very rewarding, because I felt like I’d done something worthwhile. This is a type of satisfaction that, for example, my job does not provide me with.
- Recording the word counts each day is awfully addictive.
- It’s a lot easier than you may think, to fit daily writing sessions around a job.
- It’s possible to do this with essentially no planning. I got the idea the day before and didn’t write anything down.
In many ways, I feel like this second attempt was a more significant experience for me than my first attempt. The 2010 me was writing stories all the time, while the current me only writes them every now and then. To know that I was able to do this was very reassuring for me. I’m quite excited to do it a third time, at some point in the future… I’d recommend at least giving it a try, if you are a writer and remember: any amount of writing is a success, even if you don’t reach 50,000.
