It’s that time of yeeeear!

Pffft, what? No, of course I’m not talking about Halloween. It’s NaNo Prep time and the start of the countdown to the main event.

At this point, most writers I know are exchanging the ever-popular question: Are you doing NaNoWriMo? It’s time to decide. It’s time to prep. It’s time to get your weeping corner ready with chocolate and all the delicious things you’ll need to get you through. It’s time to go through your pep talks and speeches to yourself so you can pretend that it’s fine, even though we aaaaall know there’s a reason you need a weeping corner.

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What is NaNoWriMo?

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NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month and takes place every year from November 1 to November 30.

It’s a month-long challenge to write 50,000 words in 30 days. That averages out to 1,666 per day.

To find out more about it, check out the official NaNoWriMo website here.

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Who Participates in NaNoWriMo?

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Masochists who enjoy suffering.

Writers, obviously, but NaNo draws a surprisingly large crowd. There’s the obvious first drafters, who start prepping their novel in October so they’ll be ready to sit down and write the first draft in November, but that’s far from the only people who participate. While it’s gained popularity, some people have modified NaNoWriMo to fit their specific goals.

While there is technically NaNoEdMo in March, some people use NaNoWriMo for editing their book, because the community tends to be larger in November. Some people use it for second or third or fifth drafts, too. Or if you’re not much into novel-writing, you could choose to write several short stories instead.

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Pros for Participating in NaNoWriMo

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✦ A very welcoming, supportive community of writers
✦ Forums that offer encouragement, prompts, camaraderie, and much more
✦ Who doesn’t love a good challenge?
✦ Chance to quiet your inner editor and lock them in a closet
✦ Chance to write unapologetically, unreservedly
✦ Sleep is overrated, really, anyway
✦ Might as well practice not sleeping for when you become undead
✦ Peer pressure is real and sometimes a good thing for staying on task
✦ Teaches you to make daily goals and stick to them
✦ Good way to start a daily writing habit
✦ You write something, and something is always better than nothing
✦ Insanity is fun, especially when you’re in good company

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Cons for Participating in NaNoWriMo

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✦ The stress is real and sometimes overwhelming
✦ 1,666 words a day can be a lot for some people
✦ That target can feel more like a gaol instead of a goal
✦ Pressure to hit a daily goal may trigger anxiety for some
✦ Daily word goal may be unrealistic
✦ Sometimes things happen and it’s not possible to write every day
✦ For some people, the writing quality may suffer
✦ Some inner editors refuse to be bound and gagged
✦ November is a tough month to do this sort of challenge
✦ Some people just aren’t motivated by challenges
✦ Writing daily at your own pace is better than all-out once a year

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Why I Generally Don’t Participate in NaNoWriMo

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I did NaNo for probably four years in a row, during my high school years and my first year of college, but after that, I walked away. With fond memories, for sure, and a soft spot in my heart for November and all the years I did do NaNo. As I’ve said, I know plenty of people who do still participate, and I still show up to cheer them on and support them for the month, but I don’t participate anymore.

What it boils down to for me, personally, is my own mental health and self-care.

I’m a horrible perfectionist, so not hitting that goal every day was mentally and emotionally scarring. If I didn’t hit it, I felt like a failure, and then I would push everything else aside until I did hit it. It didn’t feel like a challenge so much as torture. I enjoyed the community, but I couldn’t always make word counts every day, and I couldn’t handle not making word counts.

On top of that, the draft that came out of NaNo was always garbage. I felt like by the end of the month, I had a draft here that I had to simply rewrite, keeping very little of it, because I had forced everything just to make the word count instead of letting the writing flow.

I’m also a mother, wife, and granddaughter, and November is an extremely busy month for me. Particularly around Thanksgiving and Black Friday, my time is pretty much spoken for. But then I’d fall behind, and cue the endless cycle of beating myself up for not making my word count.

So for my own self-health, I generally don’t participate in NaNo, personally.

Will you be participating in NaNoWriMo next month? Why or why not?