I write for a living. I produce a staggering number of words annually in my day job with curling, and yet I’ve barely written anything for myself in a very long time. I’ve been missing that creative spark, so today, on a whim, I’ve decided to do this year’s NaNoWriMo.
NaNoWriMo is an annual project where writers are set the challenge of writing a 50,000 word novel in November. You have 30 days. The idea behind it is to force you to actually finish a first draft, rather than constantly pick over every line — that’s what the editing process is for. You can find out more about the project at https://nanowrimo.org.
At this point, I’ve no idea what I’m going to write about. I intend on coming up with a core idea over the next few days, then figure out the story as I go. I’ve completed NaNoWriMo a few times over the years, and I’ve succeeded this way as well as completely outlining the story, so I’m not concerned…yet.
It all begins on Sunday, and I need to make sure I write 1,667 words per day at a minimum to make the 50,000 word target. However, my aim is to go for 2,000 words per day to give myself a better chance of completing the novel this year and to minimise any interruptions caused by my day job.
This is going to be the first of many ways I intend on kickstarting my creativity again. There are other projects in various planning stages that really need to get going, and my hope is that by having the deadline imposed by NaNoWriMo it will push me to finally move forward with a number of my other ideas, including finally writing here on a regular basis.
I’m looking forward to doing some creative writing again and I’ll post updates on my progress here throughout November.