NANOWRIMO | Writers Unite! Intro

Well, everyone. It’s almost that time of the year! National Novel Writing Month. A grueling thirty days of pure writing torture. That should be fun, right? (No it won’t. I predict lots of crying and stressing out. A lethal mixture.)

Paola @ A Novel Idea and Charlotte @ Gypsy Reviews created this lovely support group for bookish people who are participating in this year’s NaNoWriMo. I think it’s an absolutely awesome idea. Having a group of people root you on boosts your morale. I remember last year, I didn’t have a support system at all and I just fell apart–melted into a puddle of icky failure.

I participated in my first NaNoWriMo last year and let me tell you, it was a complete failure. COMPLETE. FAILURE. I think I only stuck with it for the first three days (not even doing the minimum word amount) and then poof, I gave up.

Reasons why it was a failure:

1. It was my last semester of college and I had to write my thesis (I was a creative writing major and had to write part of a novel.)
2. I wanted to do a psychological detective-ghost story for last year’s NaNoWriMo, but that didn’t pan out because I had to focus on my thesis. (Writing two stories in the month of November was not ideal for me, especially with a very real deadline.)
3. For that particular project, I was a pantser. I was just writing whatever came into my head, and that meant that there wasn’t a clear plot. I knew how I wanted to start it, but afterwards, I found myself flailing. I got stuck.
4. When I write, I want everything to be perfect even though it’s a first draft. (I need to remember that it doesn’t have to be perfect, but old habits die hard.)
5. I didn’t have the attention span to write a specific amount of words each day. (That isn’t how I write.) And I have a bad habit of procrastinating.
6. I had no dedication.

I fear that I will succumb to what happened last year, especially with getting easily distracted and wanting to revise everything to make it perfect. I need to get it into my thick skull that NaNoWriMo isn’t about revising the same sentence over and over again. It’s about writing as much as I can. I don’t have to reach 50k words, but that would be nice if I did.

Also, if you want to be writing buddies on the NaNoWriMo site, feel free to add me. I’m seymouring.

2013 NaNoWriMo Project 

Earlier in the year, my best friend and I decided to write a joint novel with each of us writing a main character’s point of view and we’re using NaNoWriMo to force us to write it (because we’ve procrastinated a lot). Surprisingly enough, we made a detailed outline, which should keep us organized. We have the general idea of the characters and the world, so yeah, thumbs up.

Currently, the story is untitled and it’s about teenage bounty hunters set in the future. (Doesn’t that sound badass?)

I’m really excited to write this story.

I’ve told everybody this – as soon as November 1st comes, I predict I will have given up writing November 3rd or 4th. Mark my words. But if I don’t, congrats to future-Cee for her dedication. Proud of her. ;D

Good luck to everybody who’s participating in this year’s NaNoWriMo!