In the spirit of mixing and mingling during October and trying to race down to the wire on my 50-by-50 goals, I decided to see if adding a social element to NaNoWriMo would help me motivate myself to finish my first novel. NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month, and that month is November. It’s not a very good month for us Americans, as we have our biggest national holiday in November, Thanksgiving. I’d prefer it to be in January, when the holiday rush is over and things are much quieter. It no longer matters, as to meet my goal I have just this one month left anyway!
In 2010, I participated in my first NaNoWriMo, getting a few chapters in and then petering out. In 2011, I started up again and got quite a bit more done, although it was a bit disconnected from the part I wrote in 2011. Both years, I did it on my own, but in 2011 I signed-up on the NaNoWriMo website, then promptly forgot I had. In 2012, after at least a month of desperately trying to find the pieces of my novel, I found my missing flashdrive on Halloween…with only hours to spare. Even so, I didn’t end up writing much. I got caught up in editing, which is not the point of NaNoWriMo at all. In those three attempts, I never took advantage of the tools on the website nor the opportunities to get together with other writers in my area.
This year I decided to try something different. I attended a local kick-off meeting on Sunday. It was held at a diner in a town about half an hour away. I asked my daughter if she’d go with me…the lure of a meal was all it took. So, as she ate her macaroni and cheese (and, surprisingly, the accompanying salad), I tried to figure out how this thing was supposed to work.
First, we all got a little goodie bag which contained some tracking tools, a sticker (because who doesn’t like stickers?), and a printed circle with which to design a button. My daughter made a button commemorating one of her favorite bands and I made one commemorating the kick-off event. I am not much of an artist, and there were no colored pencils or markers, so here is what I came up with.
I did get to meet the “Municipal Liaisons” or ML’s and a few of the attendees. The ML’s plan events, write blogs, head up online forums, and generally support the local writers. Many folks seemed to be well acquainted with one another and already in their own cliques. I learned that if I attended a weekly “write-in” I’d be more likely to succeed. There is one fairly close to my home, so I put those on my calendar. Unfortunately, for the first one I already have two other things on my calendar which conflict.
So, as I finish off my month of mixing and mingling with events every night these last three days, and still trying to fit in a few runs to support my race schedule, I find myself hitting November in high gear with a lot of planning to do and just plain a lot to do. Some of it will fall by the wayside, and that’s ok. Finishing my first draft just rose to the top of my priorities.
Find the Joy in the Journey…there are always multiple paths and if one doesn’t work out, try another!
Related Post:
NaNoWriMo–A No No (2012)
Laura's Adventures After 50! 