Four Reasons To Take On NaNoWriMo
The season of NaNoWriMo is upon us! Once again, thousands of writers of all genres will embark on a one-month sprint to reach 50,000 words in November. There may be blood. There shall be Twitter rants and Instagram raves. And there will surely be obscene amounts of coffee involved––among other adult beverages.
Without question, NaNoWriMo is a bonkers challenge and there are plenty of people who have strong arguments against it––the main one being that the event values word count above all else. Yes, NaNoWriMo is all about that word count. But here’s the deal people: Just because you sign up doesn’t mean you have to hit the 50K. Leverage NaNoWriMo to your advantage. Use it to get motivated and meet your personal goals. If you keep your goals in mind the benefits of NaNoWriMo will always outweigh the “negatives.”
Here are four reasons to partake in NaNoWriMo this year:
Generating content. Maybe you need to revive your motivation to move forward with an ongoing WIP. Perhaps you need something to shove you into the deep end to get you going on your next project. Hell, you might even be looking for an excuse to write a bunch of snippets of beginnings and endings and random scenes you’ve had pinned in the back of your brain for the last few months. Whatever the case, if you’re looking for some extra oomph to get words on paper, NaNoWriMo is a great way to ramp up word production and gain momentum.
Writing regularly. You’re going to need to write almost every day (depending on your daily word count average) to have any chance of hitting the 50K. Pushing yourself to write every day, or as often as possible, will help reinforce the habit of writing regularly. As seen in the chart below, the three parts of forming a habit are reminders, routines, and rewards. NaNoWriMo incorporates all three of these R’s. Over the course of November, the NaNoWriMo team will regularly send you emails, you’ll see daily chatter on your social channels, and/or you’ll probably be talking about it with your fellow writers. All these things are “reminders,” or cues, to get writing. The “routine” not only comes from the act of writing every day but also preparing to write every day. If you write daily you’ll learn exactly what you need to get into writing mode faster and this will help you long after NaNoWriMo is over. As for the rewards, you’ll enter your word count into NaNoWriMo’s tracker each day and watch the graph grow (more on this below). In this case, the reward is seeing that graph increase day by day and as you hit certain milestones and complete different tasks you’ll receive badges as well.
Community. My good writing homie Michelle said it once and I’ll say it again: Writing is a solitary act, but it doesn’t have to be. Participating in writing events like NaNoWriMo builds camaraderie within the community, and this can boost your motivation and productivity. So ask people if they’re taking part in the event. Keep in touch with them as you navigate the challenge. Support one another. Engage!
The graph. If you do NaNoWriMo for no other reason, do it for the graph! Honestly, if you haven’t heard of this thing please Google it because it’s awesome! When you’re hustling to get words on paper it’s easy to lose sight of how far you’ve actually come. Enter the legendary NaNoWriMo graph. This tool is designed to keep you on track to hit your daily writing goal. As you enter your word counts, you’ll watch the graph grow!
