Today is the first of November and the internet is a buzz with talk of the annual NaNoWriMo challenge. If you haven’t heard, it’s a website that challenges writers to to spill out 50,000 words in one month. The basic rules are that it has to be a first draft and you have to just write, write, write.
I’ve always wanted to try it, but seeing as I’m closing in on the completed second draft of my first novel, I didn’t want to get distracted by a new story. So instead of NaNoWriMo, I opted to do the 100 days of writing challenge, presented by the Writing Spirit website. I committed to writing for at least one hour, on my novel, every day.
I lasted exactly 12 days.
It’s embarrassing to say I didn’t meet my goal. I have many good reasons (excuses), but the fact is I blew it.
Perhaps these kinds of challenges just work better when they are done with a group. Maybe that’s the secret to NaNoWriMo – in signing up you have a whole community of folks to endure with.
I will try this challenge again, as soon as my ego recovers from the failure of it all, but next time I will recruit at least three friends to do it with. Maybe we could meet every week to check in, or commit to page counts or something. Has anyone out there had more luck with this kind of challenge? If so, what’s your secret?
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