#3: Do I want to do NaNoWriMo?
What does a challenge look like?
My original goal for October was to post a series of essays on gentler productivity in the lead-up to National Novel Writing Month. I wrote three rough drafts! But I wasn’t up to fixing the wrong turns I took, so I decided to follow my own advice on gentleness and just write/post the NaNo-specific essay.
Forget “perfect is the enemy of good”; my life is defined by perfect being the enemy of done. That’s always what I run up against when participating in NaNo: either I give up before the finish line, or I don’t touch my stories again after I cross it. Achieving some balance where I push past my comfort zone while not hurting myself, reaching for what I want while remembering what I need, is what I want in any project, and part of the reason I’m attempting NaNo again this year is to try and find that balance.
With the idea of balancing wants and needs in mind, let’s look at NaNo.
The challenge
What is National Novel Writing Month? The longer version can be found on the website, but the basic challenge is this: write 50,000 new words of a brand-new novel November 1st through November 30th. Splitting that number up evenly over thirty days gives a daily goal of 1667 words, but that’s not a requirement.
I’ve done this challenge a lot. As I said before, I’ve gotten to 50,000 words and beyond, and I’ve done it without getting to 10,000 words. I’ve never gotten a satisfactory-to-me story out of the whole thing, but it’s a good way to learn how to balance a big project with the demands of the rest of your life.
But the 50,000-word challenge isn’t the only way to approach November! Official NaNo tends to be rigid as a way to specifically to build community around a common goal, but it’s worth asking if it’s the right fit for you. If you want to compare NaNo to running a marathon, think of people who do a 5 or 10k along the greater race. There are people who’ll do a digital marathon that builds over time instead of happening in one day. Others skip the course entirely and walk where and when they can, or maybe they’ll go for a swim.
There are a lot of ways to approach a challenge, and what looks like a good size to one person will be too big or too small to the next. If you need to scale things down or try a different approach, here are some questions to ask.
Is November even a good month to try?
A lot of people find November a non-starter: US retail workers and others with increased responsibilities in the face of seasonal capitalism, Northern Hemisphere people with seasonal depression, disabled people whose symptoms worsen in the cold or the heat, etc. Sure, you can try 50,000 words in a month in any month of the year, but you miss out on the extra boost working in a community can give.
But don’t worry! The NaNo site also supports Camp NaNoWriMo, which takes place in April and July and also supports a variety of different goals (see the next section for more on that).
Is 50,000 words in one month worth trying for?
Part of the appeal of Camp NaNo is that you don’t have to write 50,000 words or a novel if you don’t want to. Some things I’ve done in alternate seasons include a screenplay, a series of short stories, and comic-book scripts. Still very involved projects, but they can be lighter on word counts.
But if a winner’s certificate doesn’t matter, you don’t have to wait until April to try something different. NaNo “rebels” are a classic part of NaNo, to the point where they usually have an area on the forums to chat. Sometimes writers aim for a word count adjustment bigger or smaller in the same time period (although smaller is far more rebellious). Some people start writing in October, or keep writing in December. Some people will pull an old story from an old November and write 50,000 more words, or just finish it off. There’s nothing wrong with letting the vibes take you to a more-achievable place.
Feel free to go small! Really small! I know plenty of writers who write 100 words a day for thirty days every year. Maybe that sounds too small, but that’s still 3000 words that didn’t exist before.
Why not try a different challenge altogether?
I’ve seen variations of a million kinds over the years; one of the more enduring non-writing ones I’ve seen is National Clean Your Home Month. October is common territory for drawing prompts; it’s not hard to bring them into November, if that’s more your speed. Whatever sounds good to you and fits your needs, November can be a good time to harness the energy of people attempting large projects together.
Is rest the most important thing right now?
Sometimes, the answer to all these questions is no: I can’t/don’t want to do a different challenge, a novel isn’t what I want, and November is a terrible time. Maybe the answer to only one of these is no, and that’s still a dealbreaker. That’s okay! Clear the decks entirely if that’s the way to go.
This is the short version of all those other essays, but consider the following:
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One of the least-intuitive rules of productivity is that bowing out of a challenge you were considering, and not making plans to do another project, is sometimes the only way to succeed. We all have to make choices with our lives, and leaving options behind is one of the ways you can make room for something that will actually fit.
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“No” is a full answer, even when you’re giving it to yourself. No additional reasons needed.
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Your value isn’t in what you produce. You never have to try writing! You never have to try NaNo! It’s not a bad thing to try productivity tricks if there are things you want in your life that you’re struggling to reach toward, but any productivity advice that values artificial markers of success over your well-being doesn’t have your best interests at heart.
However you spend your November, good luck! Let me know if you take on a challenge and how that's going for you; I love to cheerlead. You can find me on Patreon, Bluesky, and a bunch of other places I don't check as much.