November has begun, and with it NaNoWriMo is once again underway. As already mentioned in previous posts, I'm not participating with the "official" even this year due to the repeated controversies last year and their statement this year in defense of generative AI. That being said, I am still doing the challenge with my local regional group, just without the official NaNo organization being involved.
The first two days weren't spectacular as far as wordcount totals. I went into today behind by quite a bit. Given my track record, this wasn't too surprising. I do think I let it discourage me more than it should have, though. Starting off the event already a couple thousand words behind wasn't great for morale.
However, one of the best things about NaNo is the writing community coming together as a real community during this time. Today was our local group's first writing event for the month. There's a little cafe/coffee shop in the area that closes at noon on Sundays, and they kindly agreed to let us use the place in the afternoon as a sort of writing hub. A couple dozen of us gathered in the tiny shop with our laptops, tablets, and whatever other writing devices (I actually saw a few brave souls using paper and pen!) to begin a long afternoon of writing words together. We ran word sprints with stickers as prizes, and had several periods of "free writing" in between. It was a blast. We had a giant whiteboard to keep track of everyone's progress and cheered loudly every time someone hit their goal for the day.
Best of all, by the time the event was over, I had not only caught up but managed to get a few hundred words ahead. I was so happy and relieved. Third day of November, and I'm already back on track. Feeling so grateful for community events like this one.
Hopefully I can keep from falling behind again, but realistically I know it's going to happen again. I'm just going to let myself feel happy for now and worry about tomorrow when I get there.
Good luck to anyone else doing NaNo this month. Happy writing and I wish you lots of words!
Background Image by Annie Nyle