If you have never heard of National Novel Writing Month (or NaNoWriMo), don't feel bad. Here are some quick and dirty stats: It's a non-profit event held every November where participants are encouraged to write 50,000 words in 30 days (comes out to about 1700 words per day). The event started in 1999, in San Francisco. The first ever NaNoWriMo had 21 participants, but by 2010, there were 10,000 times as many. This years event has over 300,000 people working towards the same goal of writing a "Novel"'.
Although I have been aware of NaNoWriMo since about 2005, this is the first year I have decided to take part of it. I decided if nothing else, it would provide good encouragement for me to write a certain amount every day. The site is neat, and allows you to keep track of the number of words you have written, as well as rewarding you with badges for completing certain tasks. The dashboard is easy to use, and shows graphs about your progress. The best part is the regional sections, which connect you to other participants in your area. You can converse with, encourage, share ideas, and even have meet-ups with people in your neighborhood. Or not, depending on your willingness to socialize.
So far though, I am far behind my daily goals. Where I should have been putting down about 1700 words per day, I have done less than 1000. Sure, a lot of this comes from the fact that my schedule is a bit busy to allow for my writing, but I have never even tried to do this sort of output before, and I am quickly finding that I just don't have the skill for it. Yet. It seems that writing is like weight lifting; your goal may be to bench 300 pounds, but at first you can only do 50. And you have to lift 50 pounds repeatedly until you can do 60, then 70, then 80 and so on. Eventually you will get to that 300 pounds, but it takes a while. Similarly, my goal was for 2000 words a day, but I have discovered I can only do about 750. I'm sure I can eventually reach my goal, but it probably wont be for this years event.
For me, this has already been a great experience, because its teaching me how to set aside time for me to write. It's easy to get distracted, and hard to find quiet time, or a quiet place. Roommates, pets, and the all powerful television have the ability to pull me away fro my task, or annoy me to the point that I can not concentrate on it. It should not be surprising then that my most productive time seems to be in the middle of the night.
So as I start week two of the National Novel Writing Month, I have some good ideas to help me hit that goal. Even if I don't though, I will not regret doing this.
