I Competed in NanNoWrimo This Year || December 2019
If you know anything about me or have been around on my blog enough to draw some context clues, then you know I love writing. I love creating storylines and characters and building a plot. So, this year I decided to compete in NaNoWriMo again.
I did NaNoWriMo for the first time in 2017. It brought me the first book I had ever finished a draft of -messy, unsalvageable and deserves to burn, but a first draft nonetheless. I couldn't complete it last year for a multitude of reasons, and it made me push even harder for me to be able to complete it this year.
So, in October, I decided to begin outlining the book I would draft this month.
To say it's different than anything I've written wouldn't exactly be an understatement, considering that it's still a contemporary YA novel, but there's a lot of elements that I found to be very different from what I usually draft. It involved two characters (which I usually draft a book that involves at least seven main characters- ambitious, I know), a static setting all in one night. I like to describe this book as an excerpt from their lives, considering it's such a small portion of their lives. I incorporated flashbacks to illustrate their past and give more context on what relationship we were seeing, etc. I also did something different this year that I haven't done before, which was to build off of a theme. I had a true, tangible theme that I wanted anyone to get out of my book, which I felt was such an awesome thing to implement. Every book has a theme, but it's important to know that YOU know what the goal is fo your book, you know? I enjoyed that.
I also did this month of NaNoWriMo differently than I did the one in 2017 because I competed with a friend. This was so helpful because we were always keeping each other on track, and it gave me the energy to try and keep up on the tracker. I consider myself a somewhat competitive person, which is why NaNoWriMo is such a great thing for me when it comes to writing. Could I do it every month? NO. But for the month I do, I enjoy myself.
I love coming out in the end with a tangible draft on my shelf, especially since over the month, my writing had progressed and grew because I was writing every day. It's probably my favorite thing, honestly, printing the draft.
This has kind of been a mess if I'm being honest, but I just needed to spread my love for nano, and how much it affects me. I finally now have a draft that is somewhat pleasing to me, unlike the one I wrote in 2017, and I hope to encourage others to participate in NaNoWriMo next year, as well as a reminder to myself to do so.
I did NaNoWriMo for the first time in 2017. It brought me the first book I had ever finished a draft of -messy, unsalvageable and deserves to burn, but a first draft nonetheless. I couldn't complete it last year for a multitude of reasons, and it made me push even harder for me to be able to complete it this year.
So, in October, I decided to begin outlining the book I would draft this month.
To say it's different than anything I've written wouldn't exactly be an understatement, considering that it's still a contemporary YA novel, but there's a lot of elements that I found to be very different from what I usually draft. It involved two characters (which I usually draft a book that involves at least seven main characters- ambitious, I know), a static setting all in one night. I like to describe this book as an excerpt from their lives, considering it's such a small portion of their lives. I incorporated flashbacks to illustrate their past and give more context on what relationship we were seeing, etc. I also did something different this year that I haven't done before, which was to build off of a theme. I had a true, tangible theme that I wanted anyone to get out of my book, which I felt was such an awesome thing to implement. Every book has a theme, but it's important to know that YOU know what the goal is fo your book, you know? I enjoyed that.
I also did this month of NaNoWriMo differently than I did the one in 2017 because I competed with a friend. This was so helpful because we were always keeping each other on track, and it gave me the energy to try and keep up on the tracker. I consider myself a somewhat competitive person, which is why NaNoWriMo is such a great thing for me when it comes to writing. Could I do it every month? NO. But for the month I do, I enjoy myself.
I love coming out in the end with a tangible draft on my shelf, especially since over the month, my writing had progressed and grew because I was writing every day. It's probably my favorite thing, honestly, printing the draft.
This has kind of been a mess if I'm being honest, but I just needed to spread my love for nano, and how much it affects me. I finally now have a draft that is somewhat pleasing to me, unlike the one I wrote in 2017, and I hope to encourage others to participate in NaNoWriMo next year, as well as a reminder to myself to do so.
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