The Trendsetter

Yay!

My quest to write my 50K novel in one month at NaNoWriMo is going so smoothly I’m starting to feel a bit queasy. So far so good. Knock on wood. For the first week I was stumbling trying to find my writing rhythm. The story went so damn slow I almost gave up. But this is the best thing being a NaNoWriMo participant: my problem or issue, whatever I call it, is not unique. There is nothing special about what I have been experiencing during the first week of writing.

Practically everyone experiences the same problem—slow in starting to write, getting mad at their characters, not feeling like writing—let alone finishing to the end line of 50K words at the end of November. And everybody can vent their issues in the NaNoWriMo forum and get a response.

So what makes me strive to write everyday and be determined to reach 50K words?

1. The feeling of a sense of belonging—participating in NaNoWriMo helps you to bust-out of the blues of writing alone. If you’re stuck in your writing, just talk to your writing buddies or yak at the nano forum and soon enough someone will respond and say the same thing or someone will offer a motivating comment or give some much needed and timely encouragement. The responses are enough to keep you going.

2. It’s fun. I have to admit it. When I think that I didn’t want to write anymore, the pep talks landed in my email and taunting me being a loser if I stopped writing. The competitor in me kicked-in and there I was perching on my chair pecking away at the keyboard.

3. The fact that nobody gives a rat’s ass about your writing is the best reward when participating in NaNoWriMo. This is my first time joining nano and I enjoy every single minute of it. This is because writing is so darn hard, for me especially once I stop writing, I find myself doing something else like crafting another story that is far more exciting than my current WIP.

4. I can use a seat-of-your-pants approach to writing. I used to outline, but due to the time constraints I only managed to write my outline in just one day. Then Nov. 1st came. I had no room for the details so I just flushed out the story as I wrote. Then I strayed from the outline. So I just tossed away my outline and started to write—on the fly. It was an amazing experience. I just wrote and continued writing, and now the plot has gotten so interesting I couldn’t wait to continue to write some more. Due to my other job, I have to wait to return home at night to start writing my next chapter.

5. It’s so cool to see your word count mounting every day. Well, if you’re writing alone, you don’t have this opportunity to show how your writing is going in public. I’m liking it.

6. After I finish my writing for the night I usually mingle on the forum and help other writers to solve their plot or character(s) problem. The feeling of completing my chapter for the day and helping others who are stuck in their writing fuels my inner drive to finish my 50K by the end of November.

All in all, participating in NaNoWriMo feels so amazing. Writing shouldn’t be too isolated at all. This is what I learned nanoing and I understand that not all writers feel the same way as I do. So, keep doing what is right for you because the writer can only be called a writer if he or she completed her Work In Progress. Now off to drag the DH into NaNoWriMo for next year!

It’s less than two weeks before 50K! Go! Go Nanoers!

Happy writing!