NaNoWriMo Or National Novel Writing Month

In July of 2020, I started writing on National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) with the idea that I needed a daily writing habit. One month of writing daily should do that, right? It used to be it takes 21 days to develop a habit. This was a misquote from 60 years ago.

The research says it takes most people closer to 66 days to form a habit. So, I continued on after that first Camp Nanowrimo in July of 2020 and wrote for the November NaNoWriMo that same year. Now today in November of 2024 I write every day.

When first starting it would take me quite a bit of the day to get to my word count of 1776 words. With several breaks. I am retired and thought how I would have never been able to do what others do that have full-time jobs. I did technical writing in my career but never creative writing.

Vocal and Medium are where I publish most of the same stories daily. Most stories are 3-5 minute reads and run 600 plus words. When poetry/rhyme is what I write, it is a 1-2 minute read and usually 100 words or so. Not including Haiku's.

There have been problems on NaNoWriMo since 2022 that have been written about on Vocal and Medium writing sites. I believe that because it has grown to the amount of people we now see there are bound to be problems as is true for other writing sites.

There are periodic complaints and rallies to make change happen on Vocal and Medium too. Then I think of other programs I am involved in that have very strict rules to protect young people. And still others that may not have enough structures in place.

This was my first Camp NaNoWriMo in July 2020. I wrote 42,104 words. It was fun to write and was given as a Christmas present to some of our family.

This was my first NaNoWriMo in November of 2020. 50,025 words written in one month. I donated this book as a fundraiser item in 2021, after editing.

The total word count that I have submitted to NaNoWriMo is 264,772 words since July of 2020. NaNoWriMo does not see any of my writing. I only report word count. It is strictly for me. No one would know if I finished a book or not in those 30 days.

If I have to miss a day, I make it up on the next few days usually. I will be out of town next week, but I am taking my laptop with me. I hope to keep up with my writing. I expect to write in the morning before training to get most of the word count in, if not all.

Then I will have some time in the evening, although this training has an artist teaching art in the evenings, it may not be possible. I enjoy art and will probably join in.

Due to my age, I'm tired after getting up early and training for three days next week. And there will be travel on the other two days. Three hours and thirty-nine minutes one way, according to Mapquest.

My husband has been ready for winter. We both remember snow on Halloween when we were children and the blizzard one year that no one was ready for. So, his snow fence went up before the leaves had fallen.

Then there is still no snow here where we are living. There was snow in Southern Minnesota. We got the reports from friends and family. When I was down there earlier this week, they were expecting it.

When I got home hubby said that the Upper Peninsula was the only one expecting snow that he could see on his weather map.

Writing with cold and snowy weather conditions makes it easier to stay seated at the computer to write. I don't like writing all day in July when I would rather be outside. I like the idea of camp and next summer I will spend more time outside with the laptop I purchased this year.

So far so good with NaNoWriMo. Stay tuned for updates as the month goes by. It's not too late to jump in and get 50,000 words written this month.