First off, if you don’t know what NaNoWriMo is, I wrote a post last year write before NaNo explaining what it is and some of my thoughts about it. You can read that here.
So, like I’ve said in that post and in my post about doing Camp NaNoWriMo, I really love NaNoWriMo because of the way that it motivates me. The competitive streak in me wants to make that little graph chart go up and up. It pushes me.
Right now, I’ve been really struggling with pushing through Rowan’s story. My writing speed is way down from normal, and I’ve struggled a lot more with discouragement while drafting this. I know that part of my writing speed may have to do with the fact that my life and schedule look different than they have during when I’ve drafted all my other novels. But it’s frustrating to have been writing this book for four months and only be half way through.
And that’s why I’m doing NaNoWriMo. I need the push that NaNo gives me. I need it to bring out the competitiveness in me and push me to write more. I need the motivation.
Do I expect to win? Not really.
Technically, I haven’t expected to win NaNo every year that I’ve done it. But I don’t let myself go in thinking that I’m not going to win. Because if I let myself have that mindset, I’m not going to push myself. I’m letting myself fail before I’ve even tried.
So even though it’s taken me four months to write 40,000-ish words, I’m going to try and write 50,000 in one month. Because I know that it is possible. It will just require some hard work.
Another reason I really like doing NaNo is that because the competitive person in me wants to win, I do a way better job of prioritizing. I want to meet my writing goal for each day. So I do a better job of weighing what matters. Will I read if that means I’m not going to meet my goal? Will I scroll through Instagram looking at pictures of books when I’m supposed to be writing?
No. NaNoWriMo makes my prioritizes better. It gives me the competitive motivation I need. It– in short–makes me writes.
And that’s why I’m doing NaNoWriMo. I’m hoping that doing NaNo this year will make me finish up Rowan’s story and also getting my writing life back in order. I need the reset that NaNo provides.
My goals from NaNo are to finish up Rowan’s story like I said above, and then to do some short stories to help me reach 50k. I think writing the rest of Rowan’s story will help me get close to 50,000, but not quite there. So that’s why I’m going to do some short stories. Plus, I’ve been itching to write a story idea I had. It’s a fun, goofy idea possibly dealing with a frog/buffalo creature. But moving on from that.
Are you doing NaNoWriMo this year? What helps motivate you to write?
Hailey Huntington 