30x30, Personal Project

30 x 30: #18 – Participate in NaNoWriMo

2014 12-01 NaNoWriMo TotalI knew when I made this list that there was no way I would be able to do 50,000 words in a month and boy was I right. However, that’s why I said PARTICIPATE in NaNoWriMo instead of complete! (I’m wicked smaht, right?)

It wasn’t for lack of time after I made it through the 15th, so much as lack of desire to sit in front of a computer and write and even though I came in just under 20,000 words I’m still really proud I got that much done. I was shocked at how easy it was to write the story I chose and am excited to finish it. Looking at the graph, you can see I wrote the what I did in three quick spurts with the final one being where I wrote nearly 12,000 words in one go.

NaNoWriMo Participant 2014If there was one thing I didn’t like about the entire process and the month it was the bureaucracy behind it. I mean I completely understand that NaNoWriMo is now a nonprofit machine and it needs to be able to sustain and support itself, but throughout the month I must’ve received at least five (probably closer to ten) calls to donate to the cause and as a “professional” fundraiser this was a bit too much. I was very glad that at some point in the past when I thought I might make the attempt to write for this, that I’d turned off the automatically forwarding the system messages to me. It was just too much.

The only other thing I noticed that perturbed me a bit was the tag line “The World Needs Your Novel.” Seriously? I mean sure the world could always use more creativity, but does it really need another novel cranked out in 30 days? I feel like I would be much more inclined to participate on a regular basis if the focus was more on the writer. Maybe something like, “Discover the novel within you,” or “Thirty days to create a world.” I don’t know those are both pretty bad but does that make sense?

But I don’t want to end on a bad note. I did really enjoy finding my creativity and when I wrote I wrote a lot! Regardless of if I finish the novel(la) I’m working on which is also on my list before 12/21, I’m counting both of these as a success. I have the story fully written in my head, but it’s amazing where it goes when I’m writing. It’s still working towards a final endpoint, but the journey has already changed pretty far from my outline.

8 thoughts on “30 x 30: #18 – Participate in NaNoWriMo”

  1. That’s awesome–you did much better than I did this year! The thing I like about nanowrimo is the collective spirit of creativity, which I think is emphasized more than the final product (although that could just be my rose-colored way of seeing it). In any case, I enjoy challenging myself to write more and the group aspect of it helps to keep me motivated.

    1. I kept waiting for that collective spirit to hit, but I guess because I wasn’t active on the forums and didn’t have writing buddies it never found me. I can definitely see where that would help out though.

  2. I haven’t officially signed up and I didn’t know about the messages to donate. that would get to me. I’m not against donating money, but I have my charities that I like to support and I don’t like being pestered for money.

    congrats on participating. Can’t wait to read the final product!

    1. I’m sure it wasn’t as bad as I’m making it out, but as it’s what I do it seemed very clunky and like they were hitting you over the head sometimes.

      We’ll see. I havent decided if I’m going to actually let other people read it. 🙂

    1. Thanks for stopping by and for the comment! I was honestly shocked I got that far. It was easy when I put myself to task, but I just didn’t have the drive to write the final 30,000 in three days 😀

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