I’ve never participated in NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writer’s Month) before. Often it was because I was just too busy, or because I didn’t have anything in mind to write, but this year, I decided to try it. I’ve been trying to take my writing more seriously, and this seemed like an opportunity to try to make writing every day into a habit.
The goal is 1667 words a day to reach 50,000 in a month, but I set my personal goal at 2,000 because I expect that, as the holidays get closer, I’d miss a day or two of writing. I wanted that buffer.
So far, it’s gone well. Yes, there have been a couple days when I failed to reach 2,000 words, but there’s also been days when I wrote well over that goal, so my average has remained over 2,000 words.
I’ve found that I am living in my story a lot more now. I am in my character’s heads and they are real to me. I don’t just know how to write Ian, right now, Ian is a living, breathing person for me. Not only that, but I want to write. All the time.
So far, the experiment is a success for me. Not only am I writing every day, but I like what I’m writing. I feel good about it. It’s not just 2,000 words, it’s 2,000 words of good writing.
At this point, I am hopeful that I can make this into a daily habit that will last well beyond the month of November.
purple ink writers 