So, if you’re a writer, you might be aware that NaNoWriMo just ended. For the first time ever – while being aware of NaNoWriMo – I actually made a point of participating this year! Spoiler alert – I did not write 50k words. College is a super busy time so I didn’t have enough time to write that much. However, I did write every day and here is how I felt about that.
The first week went rather smoothly. I already knew what I was working on – a superhero story that I’ve been inconsistently working on for the past couple of years – so that was rather easy. I’m lucky enough to have some good friends who were also participating in NaNoWriMo and fell in love with the story I was writing so they encouraged to me write. Having those friends who were eagerly waiting for my updates – which I had on a word document and then copied onto a google doc – was instrumental to my success for that first week.
The second week, too good, was pretty good. I wrote less all the way around but it was getting to the week before Thanksgiving break, so finals were coming in and it was harder to write. I tried not to be hard on myself and continued writing. Some days in that second week I was only able to write a couple of sentences but it still mattered to me. I was still writing.
The third week was when things began to take a turn for the worse. Writing got harder as I worked on worldbuilding and relationship building, which are both parts of writing I don’t like even though they’re necessary. Additionally, now it was officially the week before Thanksgiving break and I had 300 assignments at once. I missed my first day that week, both too tired and too unmotivated to write.
The last week of the month was Thanksgiving, which is where I assume most seasoned NaNoWriMo writers get the chunk of their writing done to catch up. I did not do that. Instead, I did almost no writing. This is where I missed the most days, bringing my grand total of completely missed days to four. Three were missed while I was at home, as I did nothing but relax and lounge.
All in all, NaNoWriMo was an incredible experience and one I reccomend to any writer that wants to push themselves. It’s hard to do but make sure to keep your goals realistic and to have people around you who are supportive. I wrote around 10k words in total – which is about 1/5 of NaNoWriMo – so I’m pretty proud of myself.
Anyway, I hoped you enjoy this article and will consider participating in NaNoWriMo next year. Have you ever participated in NaNoWriMo? Comment down below!