NaNoWriMo is quickly approaching and it’s a challenge I want to participate in.
For those who don’t know, NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month and takes place during the entirety of November. The challenge is to write 50,000 word manuscript within the month.
3 years ago, I attempted the challenge and due to a writing block I became discouraged and ultimately didn’t finish. I can’t remember exactly how far I made it, but if memory serves me correctly, I managed to write approximately 20,000 words in 2 weeks before falling off.
Last time – I just wrote. I didn’t think about a story or any of it’s elements until I sat down on November 1st and began writing. I had no idea where the story was going, I just let the story write itself. While this method of writing works for some, for me, it didn’t. I also hadn’t written any stories in the months leading up to November so I was out of practice. Needless to say, I wasn’t prepared.
This time things will be different. This time, I am going to be planning a story in advance. I’ve also been writing nearly everyday since February 7th, 2019 so I’m already better prepared for this massive challenge.
I will be taking one additional step to better prepare myself for NaNoWriMo. I’m going to be writing 1 short story per week. The genres will vary (although I am partial to writing horror and suspense,) but the purpose of this will be to sharpen my creative writing skills. Writing blog posts everyday is a great way to keep the mind active, but creative writing is a completely different style. I’ve thought about using Wattpad to publish these short stories (and it is likely I eventually will ) but I’ve decided to publish them here first. I’m not sure what day will be dedicated to the short story but I am going to be working on a schedule to keep the releases consistent.
I’m excited to challenge myself in such a huge way and I’m looking forward to the stories I come up with. I don’t know exactly when the weekly short stories will commence (likely later in the month as I’m currently planning both a move and a Dungeons and Dragons campaign), but I’ll be sure to update everyone as soon as I have more information. Until then – remember;
Believe in yourself for free and others will pay to believe in you.
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