My NaNo Experience

Embrace the fear. That's exactly what I did inwhere I wanted to go, while at the same time
attempting 50,000 words in 30 days. One ofletting my characters and plot have some fun,
70,000 crazy souls, I was attempting NaNoWriMo,too.
or National Novel Writing Month. For more info onI also had daily writing goals. My weekends tend
this crazy endeavor, you can visit the group'sto be busier than my weekdays, so I made a
official website.schedule of attempting 2,273 words per weekday
My favorite type of novels has always been the(instead of the normal NaNo 1,667 words per
totalitarian dystopia, novels like 1984 and Braveday). For the most part, I stuck to the schedule,
New World. I started writing a novel once beforeeven going far over the goal on a number of
and quickly grew bored with the topic and genre. Idays. Toward the middle of the month, I realized
realized since then that the type of novel I hadthat it was going to be quite possible for me to
been writing was not one that I would have likedfinish early, and in a daring move, I upped my
to read myself. How then could I expect myselfdaily writing goal.
to stay interested long enough to write it?I'm writing this on the 27th of November, and I've
My NaNo novel was an attempt at entertainingbeen finished my novel for five days now. My
myself, as well as anyone else who wanted toonly regret was underestimating myself with my
follow along in my adventure. You see, the NaNoword count goals. I surprised myself a lot during
journey is even more entertaining that themy month-long exercise. My novel grew to even
finished product.more than I had imagined, and I wrote more than
To prepare myself for this journey, I participatedI thought I was capable of writing.
in a daily writing exercise. During the month ofMy advice for anyone considering doing NaNo
October, I wrote every single day in order tonext year is to know yourself. I'm a very
prepare myself for the marathon of NaNo. I thinkgoal-oriented person, so setting daily goals for
it worked very well to get me into a routine ofmyself worked very well. Know what works best
writing every day.for you, and know what motivations work for
When November arrived, I already had everythingyou. Don't be too hard on yourself if you fail to
planned ahead. I had a very basic rough draft ofmeet a goal, just keep writing and moving
my novel, for I know the propensity my novelsforward! It's all about the journey! Embrace the
have for going off on their own. I created only afear!
very rough outline so that I could keep track of