NaNoWriMo 2022

I have participated in National Novel Writing Month since 2013. Since then, I have written more than 375,000 words. I met the 50,000-word target six times over the past eight years. I am going to give it another go this year even though I have made other commitments that will carve significant chunks of time out of my life.
Why then even start? I love writing and not reaching the goal by the end of November doesn’t mean that I won’t finish the proposed novel sometime in the following months. I play the long game knowing that it is the daily process, that journey of writing, that is the most important — not the destination.
My story is going to be the third in a series of #kidlit novels. A novel for one of my grandsons. I just published the second novel which I will be presenting to him as a birthday present in two weeks' time. That novel was a project from 2020 when I curiously didn’t enter the NaNoWriMo challenge. I wrote enough to have the story split into two books. It takes time from writing “The End” until a book is ready to be sent out into the world.
I hadn’t planned on bringing up my NaNoWriMo project on Medium, but I saw this post by Susie Kearley, a post that let me know that there was a publication called Reciprocal. I was already familiar with Susie’s work, so I decided to follow her lead in this new venture on Medium.
And then I found Chad Grills who approaches the challenge in a different manner.
Are you a planner or a pantser?
Unlike Chad, I don’t go into the challenge with any planning at all other than the intention to participate and write when and where the time allows. Yes, where is included as I have been known to write while a passenger in a car on a long drive to visit one or of our children’s homes during the month of November.
A third article came my way written by Robin Nemesszeghy. Her article gives five tips for NaNoWriMo success.
Susie mentioned in her post that there was a Medium group for NaNoWriMo.
I went to check it out and found that nothing recent had been posted there. I wonder if that will change as more people engage in the challenge. Whether you take the challenge or not, I encourage you to “write on!”
