5 Compelling Reasons to Take Part in NaNoWriMo in November

While NaNoWriMo has been around for quite some time now, I only heard of it during my second or final year in college. I had always loved writing and since the tender age of six, I knew that’s what I wanted to do with my life. But it wasn’t until I discovered NaNoWriMo and FictionPress, I actually did something about it. 

WattPad was still the rage back then as it is today. In fact, I watched WattPad grow in front of my eyes to be fair. But somehow it never really worked for me. I always found more readers on FictionPress and since the stories were episodic in nature, that’s where I first began writing what would later become my debut novel – The Secret Proposal.

But I digress from what I’d set out to tell you, that is NaNoWriMo is around the corner and if you plan on becoming an author – maybe you should consider being a part of it. For those of you who don’t know what that is – it’s National Novel Writing Month. The aim is to write 50,000 words in a span of 30 days. The word count for each day is 1,667 – which if you think about it, is pretty doable. 

Besides, we always get encouraging emails from authors giving you pep talks throughout the month. And once it was Lemony Freaking Snicket who’d written us, mere mortals! So, why should you take part in NaNoWriMo you ask? 

You Will Finally Have a Finished Manuscript 

Neil Gaiman was right when he said writers have a peculiar job. It’s always them versus a blank page. But the good thing about NaNoWriMo is that it’s your first draft. It’s a little less about being perfect and a little more about having a finished manuscript. Because as the wise say, you can edit the first draft. You can’t edit a blank page. 

Writing Won’t Feel as Isolating as It Is 

Everyone knows how lonely writing can be. We do need solitude if we want to do justice to the worlds that we are building. But the good thing about NaNoWriMo is that you will have company. You can be part of groups that meet up and just sit and write together. In fact, I believe 22 November is the night of writing dangerously where a lot of people gather together to pull through. I’m not entirely sure about that. We’ll have to cross-check it. 

You Will Become More Protective of Your Writing Time 

For some reason, everyone seems to think writing time can be skipped. I hate to break it to you – but no, it can’t. NaNoWriMo keeps you accountable. You miss one day of writing and you’ll see how far behind that can fall. You will feel less guilty about cancelling plans to sit and write because it’s a commitment you’ve made and you will have to honour that commitment. 

You’ll Find Both Inspiration & Motivation 

One of the biggest things that hold most writers back is the lack of inspiration and motivation. But NaNoWriMo gives you both. You’ll start looking forward to the time you’ve set aside for NaNoWriMo every day. You would probably have developed your writing ritual by the 10th day. Trust me. Writing shouldn’t be hard. It’s something writers are passionate about…which brings me to my last point. 

You’ll Have a Lot of Fun 

All of us chose to become writers because we’ve always had fun creating characters, telling their stories, and building worlds out of thin air. Once you fall into a writing schedule, you’ll see how much fun it is to give yourself a goal and work towards achieving it. Even if you don’t win NaNoWriMo – you’ll still have made some progress towards your new writing project. That itself feels so good. 

So, what are you waiting for? Sign up for NaNoWriMo 2021 today! I promise you, you will thank me in the end.