NaNoWriMo. National Novel Writing Month.
I was sure I was never going to do it again because the last few times I participated, I realized the pressure of putting out a specific amount of words in a short period of time drives me absolutely fucking bananas. The result is usually a massive writer’s block or sickness or something. I have a regular word output every month that’s fairly decent, so it just wasn’t worth it.
However, I did decide to participate this year because a good friend of mine from my writing group is participating. He’s a great writer and puts everything he has into every piece he creates, so I thought I would support him. I decided to go to a few write-ins and meet some people in the community, work on the novel, take it easy and not stress if I couldn’t make the deadline. Basically just commune with some folks that are going through the same thing as me, have similar goals, that kind of thing.
Turns out the Nanowrimo community is awesome. Huh. Who would have thought?
It’s cool to chill with like-minded people. I’m always around a lot of artists and creators, but those people are mostly musicians, or literal artists. I don’t really know any writers besides my writing group. And even though my writing group is becoming like a second little family, I don’t ever see them. It’s nice to be in the same room as a bunch of writers and talk face to face with people that are just as excited about proper grammar and world building as you are. It really is. I didn’t know I needed it.
Turns out I can pump out 50,000 words on command, because I hit the deadline a few days ago, and today is halfway through the month. I feel sort of shitty though because I came into it not taking the whole thing very seriously, but finished quickly when people are still working so hard and so diligently with all their hearts. But I had a good idea and I ran with it. (It’s martial arts boys falling in love in the middle of the zombie apocalypse. Sound familiar? Yeah, I thought so.)
It’s not good. Let’s get that straight right off. It’s definitely not good, but it’s words on the page and it felt good.
I hope everyone else doing Nanowrimo is doing well, meeting their goals, heading to that finish line and all that. If not, I hope you’re still happy with what you’re doing and accomplishing because that’s what matters.
Good luck! 健闘!!
Sam Stark 