It’s that time of year again: Break out your trusty pencil or computer and hunker down, because NaNoWriMo is upon us! To refresh your memory, NaNoWriMo is when people try to complete a first draft of a manuscript within the month.
As a former NaNoWriMo participant, I wanted to share a rundown of emotions and phases you can expect to experience during your “journey in writingland.”
Week 1:
•Excitement: If my neighbor’s cousin’s best friend could finish this, so can I!
•Anticipation fused with anxiety: Will I really be able to pull this off? What on earth did I get myself into?
•Slight arrogance: I am already drafting my Pulitzer Prize speech. Thank you to all the little people!
Week 2:
•Guilt: I own a dog and have a husband? How did I manage to forget this in between chapters two and three?
•Antisocial inclinations: I can’t help it that at the moment, I know more about what is happening in my protagonist’s life than in my own best friend’s.
•Pursuit of intelligent conversation: Forget water cooler talk at the office; instead, let’s touch upon my story’s denouement.
Week 3:
•Surrender: I can’t do it anymore! If I have to count one more word, this computer is going out the window!
•Regret: My writing support group has become closer than family but I miss October, when life didn’t revolve around characters, plot points, and all other things NaNoWriMo.
•Ambition: If I give up at word 19,000, I will never be Alice Walker!
Week 4:
•Smug satisfaction: One hundred fifty pages were cake! Watch out, Stephen King.
•Exhaustion: I’ll never type another word again.
•Exhilaration: Only 364 days until NaNoWriMo 2014!
Happy writing—because 295,360 novelists (and counting) can’t be wrong!
As a former NaNoWriMo participant, I wanted to share a rundown of emotions and phases you can expect to experience during your “journey in writingland.”
Week 1:
•Excitement: If my neighbor’s cousin’s best friend could finish this, so can I!
•Anticipation fused with anxiety: Will I really be able to pull this off? What on earth did I get myself into?
•Slight arrogance: I am already drafting my Pulitzer Prize speech. Thank you to all the little people!
Week 2:
•Guilt: I own a dog and have a husband? How did I manage to forget this in between chapters two and three?
•Antisocial inclinations: I can’t help it that at the moment, I know more about what is happening in my protagonist’s life than in my own best friend’s.
•Pursuit of intelligent conversation: Forget water cooler talk at the office; instead, let’s touch upon my story’s denouement.
Week 3:
•Surrender: I can’t do it anymore! If I have to count one more word, this computer is going out the window!
•Regret: My writing support group has become closer than family but I miss October, when life didn’t revolve around characters, plot points, and all other things NaNoWriMo.
•Ambition: If I give up at word 19,000, I will never be Alice Walker!
Week 4:
•Smug satisfaction: One hundred fifty pages were cake! Watch out, Stephen King.
•Exhaustion: I’ll never type another word again.
•Exhilaration: Only 364 days until NaNoWriMo 2014!
Happy writing—because 295,360 novelists (and counting) can’t be wrong!