Nanowrimo: The Tales of this Writing Event

Nanowrimo...Na-no-wri-mo?

What is this Nanowrimo? What does it mean?

Alas, do not worry. I am here to tell you all about this strange word and what it means to writers from around the globe. According to their website, Nanowrimo, short for National Novel Writing Month, is an annual event that takes place during the whole month of November. During this event, writers from everywhere strive to write 50,000 words in thirty days.

Its intention was to give writers an allotted amount of time to get their projects that they had been planning done. Though this event is mainly for novel writing, it can honestly be used for anything you want to get done. However, if you want to keep November as your novel writing month, Nanowrimo does have two smaller events in the year called Camp Nanowrimo held in April and July. Though they run for the same 30 days as in November, these events are more geared towards your flexibility in your writing. 

Don’t want to write 50,000 words? You don’t have to; you can write 10,000 words or 30,000 words or 60,000 words. Hell, if you are up to it, you can write 100,000 words. Don’t feel like writing a story from scratch at all? You can edit a story you had on the back burner; or write posts for your blog or answer emails. Nanowrimo and its camps are what you as a writer make of it.

My first encounter with Nanowrimo was either October of 2017 or October of 2018. At that time, I was in my freshman to sophomore year at my local university. I had some free time to spare and so I went onto youtube just scrolling through booktube and authortube. It was around this time where I had decided to take writing a little more serious than before. I had come across this youtuber who was getting ready to start writing their novel; and they had mentioned this Nanowrimo thing. 

So me being me, I went to look up and research it. After spending hours watching countless videos and reading so many blogs, I loosely prepared myself to try and attempt this event for myself. This loose preparation consisted of me adapting the 3 Acts, 9 Blocks, 27 chapters plotting tool created by a booktuber named Kat O'Keeffe under her youtube channel called Katytastic. 

(Thumbnail to her How to Outline video)

I don’t remember if it was her 2012 upload of how she outlines or her 2018 version of it, but it was then when I started to plot out a pirate story based in The Bahamas, where I live. I got as far as 3 chapters before ultimately giving up on that project. While I think this event is helpful, sometimes there are unhealthy aspects to it that can cause personal issues -- even business issues -- to erupt. At first, I thought it was the lack of a proper story that caused me to stop writing/planning that story. 

But I honestly believe it was the pressure to try and push out 50,000 words in one month. The whole notion behind making the 50k words in a month achievable was to write 1,667 words minimum in a day. Have you guys ever tried to write that many words in a day and continue to be consistent on a daily basis? It’s absolutely hard for me right now to find the words to place in this blog post. On average, when I am focused and the words want to come out, I can type about 700 to 800 words in 30 minutes. 

And that might sound like a lot, which it is but, it has to be a slightly perfect occasion for that to happen. Heck, the most I actually wrote in one day was around 3000 to 3500 words when I was writing my science-fantasy story I wrote during April’s Camp Nanowrimo 2019. Writing that many words was extremely draining and taxing on my mental health as a writer. The countless number of youtubers who participate rarely ever show you the downsides, only the happy times. Which is in their rights as content creators.

Personally, though November is when the main event happens, I would whole-heartedly recommend participating in the Nanowrimo camp. Although it can be good to work on a strict schedule, I feel that it hinders young or new writers to feel unaccomplished if they do not reach the word count that has now been set as the minimum standard. With the camps, though you still have the time frame of 30 days, the content you create in that time period can vary so much.

Overall, utilize Nanowrimo as a new addition to your writing regimen. Have it as a stepping stone to push to a better place as a creative. But do not get caught up in the number games. So many writers, like myself, get tossed into this pool of experienced persons who will write over 5000 words in 12 hours or so only to be spat out with little words written and no padding for the impact.

When you work at your own pace, set achievable goals you know you can reach for this time period, you will be much happier; much more excited to move your progress up a notch. But enough rambling on my part!

“Do your best in the day, for the day, and then work on tomorrow when it comes. Show yourself grace and laugh at yourself.”
― Amber Hurdle, The Bombshell Business Woman: How to Become a Bold, Brave, and Successful Female Entrepreneur

I really hope that you guys enjoyed this post. Down in the comments below, tell me what your plans were for Nanowrimo. Did you follow through with them? Did you decide to not participate in it this year? Tell me all of your reasonings! Also, what are your Thanksgiving plans? It’s not a national holiday here in The Bahamas, but it's fun to know what everyone else is doing.

Stay tuned for next week’s flash fiction coming on the 28th of this month! Also, our first book review on this blog will debut SundayNovember 29th 2020 at either 7am or 10am, I haven’t decided as yet. The piece will either be on a romance novel or a paranormal romance novel. So do be on the lockout for that!

And don’t forget…

Better Weird, Better Writing!