I’m Participating In NaNoWriMo 2020!

Hello, fellow readers and writers! I hope that all of you are well.

For those that have followed me for a while now, you may be aware that I’ve participated in Camp NaNoWriMo before. In fact, I won three times and I already wrote about the latter two experiences. And if you haven’t read the title of this post, well:

This year, I’m officially participating in NaNoWriMo 2020!

What does this mean, however? What even IS NaNoWriMo? Here are the following explanations about NaNoWriMo and my plans for it, as well as a few other related questions and answers:

1. What is NaNoWriMo?

NaNoWriMo is short for “National Novel Writing Month.” It’s an event taking place in November where writers try writing 50,000 words, which is the average length of a novel, in one month. In more recent years, the event became more flexible to include not just writing a novel itself, per se, but also other works of writing like scripts, musicals, and even short stories! As long as you hit the 50,000-word goal within November, you win. Participants often can get discounts for writing programs and/or related software, with winners getting additional discounts and other goodies.

2. What is Camp NaNoWriMo and how is it different from normal NaNoWriMo?

Camp NaNoWriMo is the even-more-flexible version of NaNoWriMo. It takes place during April and July every year. Writers use this opportunity to create custom word goals to achieve within the month. I’ve won this event three times because I reached those goals within their respective months (April 2018, April 2020 and Juy 2020). I wrote about the latter two experiences, which you can read here and here! 

3. Why haven’t you participated in NaNoWriMo until now?

The main reason I didn’t participate in NaNoWriMo until now was because I didn’t give myself the time. I was busy working on other writing projects, such as short stories and poetry. Another reason why I didn’t participate in NaNoWriMo was because I often was busy with other things not necessarily writing-related during November to December. Given this year’s pandemic, however, I have a lot more time on my hands, so I figured I might as well participate.

4. Do you expect to win this time, given how you’ve won Camp NaNo three times already?

No.

Here’s why:

First, my word goals for Camp NaNoWriMo often went into the 25,000-word range. The normal NaNoWriMo goal is twice the amount of my goal for total words (50,000 words). Doubling the usual word-count I go for will make this a lot harder to achieve.

Second, I’m not writing a novella or novel this time around. In fact, this project is an entirely new writing format for me. I’m not going to say exactly what I’m writing for this project this time around because I want to keep that a secret. Hopefully that secret is something I can share with all of you in the future.

Finally, I’m not putting any pressure on myself to reach exactly 50,000 words by the end of the month. My goal is simply to write as much as possible in the month. It’s much less nerve-wracking for me when I just want to get the words on the page, as opposed to thinking you have to hit 1,667 words per day. I’d rather have fun with this project and take it easy, rather than burn myself out in the whole writing process.

5. Where can we see your progress?

My NaNoWriMo profile is here if you want to check it out! I’ll try to update it as regularly as I can, but we’ll see how things go!

Do you plan to participate in NaNoWriMo this year? Have you participated in this event before? Let me know in the comments! I’d love to hear more about your experiences.

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