It’s that time of year again. For most people, November is the month where they start prepping their Thanksgiving meal plans or -if they’re already skipping to December- already humming holiday tunes beneath their breath.
Not for a writer though. No, November becomes a month where we say goodbye to our close friends and family members and shut ourselves away for 30 consecutive days, hunched over our laptops and hissing at any signs of sunlight.
If you don’t know what I’m talking about, first of all, lucky you. Second of all, I’m talking about NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month. It’s a massive writing challenge where each participant has to complete a 50K word novel/novella by the end of the month. That’s about 1,667 words a day. The whole idea of it is to get over your fears and writer’s block. Simply write.
My Experience with NaNoWrimo
I’ve done my fair share of attempts at this writing challenge, and I do mean attempts, because I’ve only successfully completed it once. At the time, I was a wide-eyed sophomore in high school, and somehow managed to steal away an hour or two each day. I was soaring when I finished it. I mean, the mere fact that I had written 50,000 words was incredible. That was the most I had ever written for an on-going piece at that point in my life.
Though if I’m being honest, I haven’t touched that piece since I hit the “Final Word Count Submission” button on NaNo’s site. Whether that was because the story just no longer interested me, or the story had fulfilled its purpose in my life as something experimental and carefree, but I haven’t really looked at that piece again.
Since then, it’s been hard to commit to a NaNoWriMo without feeling overwhelmed, drained, and not confident that what I’m writing is actually good or productive. And hard NOT committing to a NaNoWriMo without feeling like I’ve lost out on a great opportunity to engage with the writing community and really push myself.
What I’m Doing Instead
So as always, I’ve come to find a middle road. But please don’t get me wrong! I love NaNo. It’ll always have a place in my heart, though the thing is that NaNoWriMo is really good if you have a game plan, a new story that you’re ecstatic about, and if you know you want to hit a high word count quickly, which is just not what I need for writing right now.
SO for November, I’ll be doing -as I’ve come to call- Freewrite Frenzy.
Let me lay down the rules:
I’ll be writing 500 words/day for 20 days out of November. I can only give myself an hour to write, but I am allowed to edit that piece during that hour. The piece must explicitly say the word from the daily prompt (which you’ll see below), or the word must be so integral to the story, it cannot be ignored!
- Tool
- Excess
- Pick
- Privacy
- Theme
- Flower
- Mass
- Mature
- Punch
- Sight
- Collect
- Incentive
- Barrel
- Agile
- Dragon
- Shiver
- Satisfaction
- Crack
- Random
- Obligation
I’ll be posting some of my excerpts from each daily freewrite onto my social medias. Each week, I’ll also be sharing my favorite freewrite on my site, so you’ll be able to read a few full versions here. With that, I’ll also be checking in with how I feel that week and trying to answer along the way if this hybrid-version is really working for me.
Why Am I Doing This?
That’s always the question, isn’t it? Honestly, in looking at what NaNoWriMo strives for each year and seeing what I want to accomplish, it just doesn’t match. I’m really happy that I have my longer manuscript that I’m working on and I’m not really looking to start any projects of a longer length. Most importantly! I’ve been wanting to focus on short stories and I think this will be a great way to do that while still participating in the writing community.
And of course, I’m always chasing that work-life balance. It’s always just barely out of our grasp, isn’t it? But I’m hoping that this writing challenge can complete all of those things. With each writing challenge, I feel like I learn a little bit more about my creative process, as well as who I am as a person. I can’t wait to see what happens on the other side of November.
Warmest,
Lauren
Lauren Domagas
(she/her) Filipino writer passionate about diverse representation. Also boba tea enthusiast on the weekends.