I’ve always low-key loved Nanowrimo. Maybe I like torture, or perhaps I had a better experience because of Lowell’s fantastic group. While I like the idea, I’m not always successful at it. Sure, I “won” a few times, but none of those drafts translated into novels I could submit or even start the editing process. Every year I pledge the same thing, that I’ll try to write 50k words of whatever.
There’s a lot of blog posts out there of bitter writers who hate Nanowrimo. I’m in the camp that people can do whatever they want whenever they want, including writing 50k words in November. If that’s what they want to do, fuck it, they should do it. If it’s not, that’s ok too. If you wanted to win but didn’t make it, that’s ok too. The point is to be supportive of fellow writers.
I’m not asking you to love every writer’s work. I’m asking you to respect the way they wrote and finished their work. Being a planner or pantser or any other “type” of writer in between, in the end, doesn’t matter. If someone tells you they got the secret perfect “way” of writing a great novel, they’re either a sanctimonious liar or clueless about all the different ways people conceive books.
I’m going to continue my seemingly impossible goal of 200 stories for 2020. However, this time I’m going to organize them a bit for Nanowrimo. I think I’ll bunch them up in “groups” and give them an anthology title. Something like “Stories with Goats” or “Titles are Overrated.”
If you’re reading this, thank you. Like I said on my very first post from this blog, I’m here to just let words go into the void without expecting any type of engagement. However, it’s always nice to know someone’s reading in the aether.
If you wanna see my NaNoWriMo profile, click here. Fair warning, it’s updated less than this site.
