As the end of the Community Engagement Challenge comes to a close I find myself staring at a beast of yet another challenge. FEAR NOT! LOL My eyes aren't on you. This year I have committed the whole month of November to attempt...

NaNoWriMo

If you've never heard of it, NaNoWriMo is short for National Novel Writing Month where all who participate are challenged to write 50,000 words in 30 days.

"Valuing enthusiasm, determination, and a deadline, NaNoWriMo is for anyone who has ever thought about writing a novel." _[1]

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NaNoWriMo is also a 501(c)(3) charitable organization who encourage people all around the world to find their voice, share their stories, and create goals. Sure, it's a writing challenge, but the fundraising and awareness of this annual event helps develop programs for creative education and make virtual classroom management tools available all over the globe.

It offers a Young Writers' Program, Camp NaNoWriMo, and has a whole network of volunteer Municipal Liaisons who often coordinate real world write-ins at local bookstores, coffee shops, and other local businesses.

I may be certifiably insane. lol :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

With the end of the Community Engagement Challenge at the end, why am I committing myself to another arduous challenge?

One answer might be because I have "ink in my blood." I've been writing since I was a child but it's never been structured until I found NaNoWriMo. Average 1667 words a day; write fast and hard; worry about editing later; put ideas on the page and keep going. This pace saved my writing life because it trained me to just keep writing.

My terrible habit was always to edit a novel to death. Seriously! I'd get stuck on a paragraph or chapter and research my way down so a deep rabbit hole that the original idea behind the novel just withered and died with the weight of it.

I missed last year

This is my badge from 2016, the last time I "won" NaNoWriMo.

A year ago, I was still recovering from attending two Marine Corps graduations three weeks apart. Afterwards, I was commuting 1.5 hours a day to paint and fix up our house in preparation to move into it. Then the actual move and add hustling to find as much freelance work as I could find. I was not in control of my own timetable. It was terrible.

This year is different. I feel about as close to the master of my own schedule as is possible -- and I like it that way!

Are you joining NaNoWriMo too?

Let me know! If there are enough people on Whaleshares who are participating, we might benefit from having a support network and a couple of virtual write-ins. Let me know!

Oh, and if you feel like joining the movement, visit NaNoWriMo and register your novel today.