NaNoWriMo and Other Forms of Mental Instability

It's been a while.  Too long, really.

Last month, I participated in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo).  It was a crazy adventure, but it was so worth it.  I wasn't planning on participating, but for some reason that is beyond me, I did anyway.  I guess I am just a sucker for punishment.

On the morning of November 1st, I started seeing people tweet about participating in NaNoWriMo.  Now, I did a half NaNoWriMo a couple of years ago, and it nearly killed me.  Even though the actual challenge is for 50,000 words, I set my own goal of 25,000.  It was the first time I had written anything of that magnitude, and it was insane.  After that, I had no intention of doing it again.  I figured that once was enough, and that I would write a novel in my own time. 

But as I sat at the kitchen table, having breakfast with my Mom, I started thinking.  Our conversation went something like this:

Me:  NaNoWriMo starts today.

Mom:  Oh, yeah, I guess that is today.  You don't really think it's a good idea, do you?  It was almost the death of you before.

Me:  No, I actually don't.  It's a terrible idea.

Mom:  Okay, good. 

But that morning, something inside me snapped.  I had to do it, I had to do NaNoWriMo.  Maybe it was the writing bug coming back with a vengeance, maybe I truly just lost my mind for a few minutes.  I suspect it was a combination of the two. 

As I sat in school, I made an account on the NaNoWriMo website.  I wasn't sure what exactly the next month was going to look like, but it didn't matter to me at that point.  But I started writing, and that block I got about 800 words done.  It was not much, but it was a start.  I mean, only another…  49,200 words to go?  Yes, I definitely lost my mind that day.

When I got home, I kept writing.  It was slow, and kind of painful, but I was writing.  But it wasn't long before my Mom came to check and see what I was doing.  The conversation went a little like this:

Mom:  What are you doing, Allie?

Me:  Oh, just writing.

Mom:  No.  No.  You did not seriously sign up for that, did you?

Me:  Well, I made an account today…

Mom:  Really?  Really?  Why?

Me:  I honestly have no idea. 

And that was the truth.  I hadn't a clue why I had signed up for this.  The 1667 words that I needed for the first day were a struggle, but they finally got finished.  It felt good to be writing, even though I was feeling slightly overwhelmed at that point.  How on earth was I going to keep this pace for 30 days straight?

The next few days went pretty well.  I was even 1000 words ahead of schedule for a few days.  It was only for a few days, though.  Because being me, I caught a horrendous cold just over a week into NaNoWriMo.  My word count was so far down for a few days, I thought I would never get it back. 

But in a mad fit of writing, I wrote 3000 words in one afternoon.  It took me until 11 o'clock at night, but I got myself caught up.  Actually, I did that a couple of times.  Between being sick, having a wedding to go to, and a couple other things, I was behind right up until the last day.  My family was mentally preparing me for the fact that I might not make it to the 50,000 word mark.  But I was too stubborn to give up, a fact that I am so thankful for now.

On November 30th, I wrote 2400 words while still at school.  Actually, it was all in the middle of class.  But because of a couple supportive teachers, who actually encouraged me to write rather than do schoolwork, I managed to meet the 50,000 word goal.  Like I said, it was in the middle of class.  So there were only two other people in the room when I hit 50,000.  I was so thrilled, but there was nobody to share it with for a while.  Most people

Looking back over the crazy days of November, I am so glad I did NaNoWriMo.  Without it, I would likely be in the same spot as I was in October: having a detailed outline for a novel that was never written.  But now, I have 50,000 words of a novel.  It's not finished, by any means, but it's getting there.  And I have the winner's certificate to prove it. 

Some people would argue that NaNoWriMo is a terrible way to write.  They say that the quality of writing is too awful, the pressure of writing that much is too much.  But I would say that while the challenge is massive, it works.  I have a novel to show for my hard work.  And yes, the quality is terrible, but I can spend time editing and rewriting.  It's all a process.

My sudden fit of insanity paid off, even if people thought I was crazy right up until the end.  The looks I got when people heard I was writing 50,000 words in 30 days were hilarious.   But it didn't change the fact that I was going to do it.  And I did.  So if you think you're too busy to do something you want to do, you're not.  If I can balance school, family, and piano lessons with writing a novel, you can do it too.  If you want it bad enough, you will make time for it, even if it  means that you are sleep-deprived and a little crazy for a while.