National Novel Writing Month was less scary than I expected.

This November, I participated in NaNoWriMo, the National Novel Writing Month. The nominal goal of the event is to write a story that’s 50 000 words long. I decided to participate so I could try out an idea I had been thinking of for a long time. As someone who mainly writes shorter fiction works as a hobby and with limited formal creative writing education or experience, this sounded like a daunting task, but after looking at NaNoWriMo community resources and meeting the kind people on the online Ottawa writing group for the event, I felt more assured that I could accomplish something nice for November.

My biggest concern was that I wouldn’t be able to keep a strong daily writing pace. From past expierience, I know very well that I write very slowly. I like to spend a lot of time looking at my screen, thinking about how to word something exactly right, rather than actually putting down words. However, upon joining my local writing group, I learned about a common way to stay productive and motivated with peers.

Word sprints

Word sprints are 15-minute writing events where everyone who’s interested in participating registers their word count. Then, the objective is to write as many words as possible before time runs out. Each participant then reports how many words they added during the sprint.

When I first participated in a word sprint, I was surprised to see that my productivity was much better than without the timer! Because the primary goal of a word sprint is to write as many words as possible and there’s time pressure, I had no time to hesitate and stare at my screen, as I normally do. I instead charged ahead, worrying about cleaning up my mistakes later. Sometimes, I even left gaps in my story, skipping over the parts that were difficult to write so that I wouldn’t slow down during the sprint.

The fact that other people were participating at the same time also helped, because all the sprinters together formed a mutual support group to keep each other motivated. In fact, because anyone could announce and start a sprint, the barriers to writing were extra low. I could join whatever sprint was going on, or if there was none, I could even host my own.

I (as well as other newcomers) remarked that word sprints were oddly addictive. Fifteen minutes in into my intense writing session, I would feel that I was making real progress, only for the event timer to end. As a result of this feeling, people often hosted multiple sprints in a row, with a brief break in between to socialize and share progress with fellow sprinters.

Result

I ended November with a the story I was wishing for for months, fully written. After that, I’ll be showing it to friends for feedback, then working on proofreading my text.

My advice to anyone who anyone who feels reluctant to participate is to figure out what story you want, find your group, and take part in word sprints to push your word count step by step. Make time for writing as frequently as possible during November and focus on day-to-day tasks rather than the final 50 000-word target.

Although the formal goal of NaNoWriMo is to write 50 000 words, there’s no real enforcement of this rule and the event allows and welcomes alternative goals. Thus, even if you don’t think you can reach 50k, you can still set yourself a lighter goal to work to. In any case, if you don’t reach your goal by the end of the month, you’ve still made progress in creating a story, when you would’ve had none otherwise. NaNoWriMo inclusively celebrates creation and accomplishments, regardless of skill level.

What will I do when my story’s all polished and ready to go? I’m not sure yet. I’m definitely not going to charge money for it, though.