A NaNoWriMo Adventure
Christina Weigand
The first year I did it, 2001, I was a newbie writer, and I
did this just for fun to see if I could do it. I didn’t reach 50,000 words, and
in fact didn’t accomplish that until 2008, but I was hooked. Some years,
especially when I lived in Washington, I was very focused and that is the
period of time when I wrote: Palace of
the Twelve Pillars (2008), Palace of the Three Crosses (2009) and Sanctuary of
Nine Dragons (2010). Keep in mind those three books did not come out of
NaNo ready to be published. I think that’s where the beauty of NaNo; you give
yourself freedom to write the first draft, which by its nature is not supposed
to be the best or final product.
Some other things that make the experience worthwhile: The
companionship you receive from writers from around the world and in in your
local community; putting away your inner editor and just writing and an
organized group that promotes, supports and guides the writer.
I’m sure NaNo is not for everyone, but for me, I will keep
doing it; maybe. There are years including this one that I have contemplated
not doing it or didn’t have a specific project in mind. But somehow someone
manages to convince me to take the leap and do it once again.
I may not have convinced anyone to do this, but that
really wasn’t the goal. For me NaNo has been a fulfilling experience. There
have been times that I have been in that zone, you writers know what I am
talking about, where the words come faster than I can get them on paper. There
have been times when I’ve felt as if I would never write a good word again. In
those times the friends I have made find a way to talk me out of the slump.
So once again I took the plunge and will spend the next
month writing or in my case rewriting. I went to the NaNo website today and saw
my total NaNo word count for the seventeen years I have participated. It is
287,716, a lot of words but well worth the effort.
Now onto NaNo, to hopefully add another 50,000 words. I’ll
see you on the fifteenth and give you an update on my progress.
If you are interested it's never too late to start. Here is the link to sign up or just check it out here: NaNo
If you know of a young writer or are a teacher that wants her class to participate in NaNo there is a Young Writers NaNo here: Young writers
For more info on NaNoWriMo you can check out Tricia's post here.
And to see more articles from Our Author Gang:
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