Why NaNo?

We interrupt your regularly scheduled writing adventure to bring you this special message:

 

National Novel Writing Month. 30 days of literary abandon. If you're not in the know, National Novel Writing Month (or NaNoWriMo, or just NaNo) takes place every November, and challenges writers worldwide to write 50,000 words in 30 days. I have participated every year since 2010, and have reached the requisite word count each time. Up until 2012, there was also an event in April called Script Frenzy that required 100 pages of a script in 30 days, which I succeeded at in both 2011 and 2012. In 2011, two summer events called Camp NaNoWriMo were added, with the additional feature of a customizable word goal (10,000-1,000,000), and I have made various attempts at that, with mixed success, since 2012.

 

This means that nowadays there are three annual writing events--Camp in April and July, and regular NaNo in November--and I must do them all. Not only that, but the past three years (since 2013) have been spent as my local region's Municipal Liaison (ML), which basically means that it's up to me to set up and host the various parties and Write-Ins (where we get together and… write) in and around November. So why do all this, every year?

 

Every year, I have to come up with a new story to tell, and tell it at high speed. Some days it's easy, and the words just pour out of my head and onto the page. Some days, I slog through, adding flashbacks, dream sequences, pointless dialogue and circuitous descriptions in an effort to reach that word goal. I forgo sleep and household responsibilities in favor of writing. Some years, I hate my story and its inability to make any damn sense (that would be 2015). Most years, I can barely get to the last week of writing before I start thinking about what I should do next.

 

But every year, when NaNo or Camp are approaching, I get excited, eager to start a new adventure with some new fictional friends. I'm not sure how to explain it, because I have weird reactions to things, but it's like a bundle of energy in my chest that tries to crawl its way up into my throat, where it can make me make ridiculous noises while probably jumping up and down. I have to contain it, of course, because I have to at least pretend to be human. Maybe one day the thrill will wear off, and I won't look forward to NaNo. I guess at that point, I'll stop doing it. But that day hasn't come yet, and I don't see it anywhere in the near future.

 

April Camp NaNo is coming up in just over a month, and I'm already brimming with excitement and trying to decide what this project should be. I'll of course take you along for the ride, so you'd better strap in, come April. This also puts a deadline on my prison train story, since I don't want to stop in the middle of that to work on something else. I'll likely be back on that for my next post.

 

As always, feel free to comment with any questions or anything. I'm still working out the structure of this whole blog thing.