Chris Baty's Blog, page 61

Introducing: #StayHomeWriMo

Last week, we sent out a survey asking how we could help make the coming weeks easier, more fun, and less stressful for you. Literally thousands of people responded and asked us to provide extra resources, activities, and opportunities for online connection.

That’s why we’re launching #StayHomeWriMo—an initiative to support and encourage you to stay well and find comfort in creativity in these trying times. Sure, the whole world might be keeping its physical distance from each other (please do), but that doesn’t mean we have to distance ourselves from our creative lives (please don’t).

NaNoWriMo’s staff has been working remotely over Slack, video conferencing, email, and G-chat to bring you a bevy of creative activities and self-care check-ins. #StayHomeWriMo is flexible so you can adapt it to fit your social distancing, schedule, and overall well-being, whether that’s writing fiction, journaling about this time in your life, being mindful of your emotional and physical health, or just making social connections at a safe distance. Each (week)day for the rest of March, we’ll post a checklist of prompts to help your mental, physical, social, and creative well-being.

Want to jump in early on a full creative project? You can start a project on the NaNoWriMo site now and customize the dates to your needs. 

Home with school-aged kids and need help keeping them busy? Sign them up on ywp.nanowrimo.org for age-specific resources and a youth-friendly writing space! 

Juggling pre-school aged kids and work and have zero down time for writing? Lean in on the mental, physical, and social check-ins and connect with other like-minded writers with no time to write in the comments of our social media, on our forums, and in your own spaces.

Get more details on #StayHomeWriMo on our website at https://nanowrimo.org/stayhomewrimo and please share this with your friends and loved ones who might be looking for new ways to connect and stay well.

Image description:

A yellow and teal graphic titled “#StayHomeWriMo: Day 1 Self-Care Checklist”

1. Mental Well-Being: Put your phone in a drawer for half an hour and give yourself a break from the news and social media

2. Creative Well-Being: Writing prompt: Write about a character who’s stuck inside. How do they feel about it? Why are they there?

3. Social Well-Being: Write and mail a letter to a friend or family member.

4. Physical Well-Being: Take note of where the tensest points in your body are. Take three deep breaths while relaxing those muscles!

Environments Can Influence Your Writing

From beds to desks to dining tables, many of us have no choice but to write from home for the immediate future. Fear not! Kristi Stalder is here with us today to teach us how how to make the most of our writing environments — both at home and online.

With all of the social distancing and encouragement to stay home and limit our exposure to crowds, we may experience a slight wrench in our Camp NaNoWriMo plans. Fortunately, we live in a world with the ability to connect virtually and because of this, we are thriving as a community. 

During Camp NaNoWriMo, many of us will be writing at home but we can make the best of it by creating a productive writing environment and still have connections with the writing community. While the perfect writing environment isn’t a guarantee that you’ll meet your word count, it certainly has an influence on your creative mindset. We can create a personalized workspace in the comfort of our homes, and have fun while mixing things up! 

Online writing communities can help you achieve your goals.

One of my favorite things about NaNoWriMo are the people within the online writing communities. Sharing thoughts, motivation, and inspiration with likeminded writers is what makes me love what I do. It’s by far, the most encouraging and positively influential environment. 

I’ve met writers in local workshops, NaNo write-ins, libraries, schools, and coffee shops, and they are still, to this day, great friends of mine. We all share a passion for writing, and this common thread of love knits us together no matter how scary the world becomes. 

We all know that writing is HARD. But the writing community helps to push us through the challenges. They show up with us. They write with us. And they share success stories as well as failures, to help us to learn and grow as writers.

If you haven’t already, join a writing group online and you’ll see what I mean. Unwavering support, honest feedback, and meeting new friends are just a few great benefits.

A stimulating environment leads to productivity.

When I write in a café, I enjoy listening to the chatter and laughter of the patrons, and the acoustic melodies coming through the speakers are as smooth as my white-chocolate mocha. Not to mention the sensational aroma of coffee that puts me in a trance, and I am inspired to write for hours.

To replicate this atmosphere, try this to transport your mind:

If you’re inspired by scents, have a variety of candles burning while you write. I have a coffee scented “writing candle” and when it’s lit, I write and don’t stop. When I blow it out, my writing session is over and I can relax.If you’re inspired by music, create a playlist of the relaxing café music (or any genre that awakens your muse), and play it in the background while you hammer out your word count. This goes without saying, but I’ll say it anyway. Coffee, tea, or any other beverage that strikes your fancy is good for the writer’s soul. Pause, take a sip, and continue writing like water flowing over stones in a creek.If scenery inspires you, rearrange your writing space to have plenty of natural light, and change the view to keep your mind fresh. My backyard bistro table now sits in the corner of my living room near a window, overlooking the snow-capped mountains. When the mood strikes and I want to write in the café, I’ll light a few candles, make a cup of coffee, press ‘play’ on the soundtrack, and I’m there. 

While the world is on pause and we wait for the pandemic to fizzle out, we can use this time at home to focus, set writing goals, and forge onward. 

Be well, good luck, and remember to wash your hands!

(No, seriously, go wash your hands.)

Kristi Stalder is an author, book coach, and creative entrepreneur. She lives in the little farm town of Tonasket, Washington with her kiddos and handsome husband, and she spends her free time working on her adventure fiction novel. She is the author of the senior resource guide, Navigating Assisted Living: The Transition into Senior Living, and children’s book, I Love You More, illustrated by Julie Edwards. For more information, visit www.KristiStalder.com and connect with her on social media!

Top photo by Tom Rogerson on Unsplash

5 Ways to Use Tabletop RPGs as a Writing Tool

Looking for a fun, new way to get to work on your worldbuilding? Today, as a part of a new series on roleplaying, Gretchen Turonek shares some tips on how to use roleplaying to strengthen your writing: 

Until a few years ago, I was kind of intimidated by the idea of tabletop gaming as a hobby. It seemed like something I might be into, but for the longest time, I avoided it. That all changed when I was brought on to a Dungeons & Dragons campaign, and now I regret not having started sooner because it’s one of the
best things I’ve ever done for my writing.

Tabletop role-playing games allow you to tell stories with a group of people. There’s no winning or losing except in the form of telling the best and most memorable story possible, and there are so many options for games across genres and complexity levels that there’s something for everyone. Here are
five ways things that roleplaying could help bring to your novel:

1. Collect Story and Character Ideas

If you’ve created a character you really enjoy, try working their adventures into your writing. You could chronicle the campaign from their perspective, or you could really flesh out their backstory or other “off-screen” adventures. If you’re a game master that’s running a game, you could do something similar, or base your novel on the path your players didn’t take.

2. See What Kinds of Stories Inspire You

When you’re creating and playing a character, think about what drew you to the concept and the story hooks you want to explore. Do you want more about your character’s relationship with their family, their love interest, or the other members of the party? Are you invested in their resolve to finish the
mission or the temptation to stray from their path? The stories you gravitate towards when you make your RPG characters are the ones that hold your attention and make you want to find out more: even if you don’t plan on writing a novel themed around your game, think about the stories you enjoy, because
they’re probably the ones that will carry you toward your word count goal.

3. Create Through Collaboration

We writers have kind of a reputation for locking ourselves in our rooms and only emerging when we’ve made progress, the day job calls, or we’re out of caffeine. Getting away from your desk and interacting with other people—yes, even during NaNoWriMo—can sometimes be the best thing for your story.
Even if you’re not thinking about your novel directly, being in a place with other people thinking creatively about the same story can be inspiring.

4. Encouraging Fearless Improvisation

NaNoWriMo is all about getting your words on the page in a limited amount of time without agonizing over whether they’re perfect. RPGs are very similar, but with an audience: there’s a (real or virtual) table of people waiting for your next decision, which is more often than not made on the spot and gets instant
feedback and results. It sounds scary, especially because some decisions might not seem “right,” but as long as the story is moving forward and everyone is comfortable with what’s happened there really are no wrong choices.

5. A Healthy Change of Pace

At some point, you’re going to hit a wall in your writing. There’s something to be said for sitting in a chair and making it happen, but if you’re staring at a blank notebook or a blinking cursor and you can’t get any words out, a change of setting and medium might help. If the writer’s block happens to arrive on
game night, you’ll be stepping away from your novel and into creating a different story, but you’ll probably come back to your novel refreshed.

Gretchen is a seven-time WriMo and Camper from Michigan. She’s a copywriter and fantasy writer who is in the process of revising a former NaNo novel that was, in fact, inspired by a Dungeons & Dragons campaign. She also has a few small game design projects in the works. It’s unusual for her not to be creating or consuming content in fictional worlds, but she does occasionally dabble in fiber arts and baking.

Top photo by Alex Chambers on Unsplash

How Can NaNoWriMo Help Support You Right Now?

Many of you may be facing extended isolation or time at home in the coming weeks. Maybe writing through hard times is a source of comfort to you and you’re looking forward to escaping into the world of your imagination. Maybe you can’t imagine wanting to write at all right now. We’re here to support you no matter which one of those camps you fall into.

We’d like to ask what we can do to support you as we get ready to host Camp NaNoWriMo in April. One of the best things about NaNoWriMo — and especially Camp — is that it’s an incredible source of virtual companionship and company at a time when you may feel increasingly lonely. We’ll be doing everything we can to increase those opportunities for social distancing-friendly connection and support.

If you have a moment, please fill out our survey to let us know what you would find most helpful and useful in the coming weeks as we all get through this together.

Meanwhile, we’re still offering all of our usual resources, activities, and community platforms. Here’s a list of some you might want to check out:

Become part of a writing group! You can now join or create a 20-person writing group to post messages and chat with your fellow writers.

Meet your April 2020 Camp Counselors! An Na, Dallas Woodburn, Devi S. Laskar, and Jennifer Ziegler will be guiding you through the month.

Join one of our upcoming YouTube livestreams for real-time writing prompts and sprints with the NaNo community from around the world.

What’s your Camp NaNoWriMo project going to be? Share your story idea and chat with other writers on our forums!

Looking for kid-friendly educational tools? Our Young Writers Program has got you covered with free downloadable workbooks, creative writing curricula, and more.

Stay healthy and safe, everyone. 

<3 The NaNoWriMo Staff

Inspiration and Respect in Historical Fiction

Time to hit the books! History is full of novel-worthy moments, but how do you write about these events while remaining mindful and respectful of the people who lived through them? Here to start off a new blog series on using real-world events as writing inspiration is Young Writers Program participant Madalyn R:

Inspiration is hard. I’m realizing this yet again as I sit down at my computer to write this blog post. While it can be tempting to travel down a rabbit hole of Pinterest’s top picks for writing inspiration (which will probably eventually lead to a collection of 50 Hottest Characters in Shakespeare), opening a history textbook may be your best bet. 

Bear with me, reader, I know it seems dull and dry, but when you push through the academic, sometimes snooze-worthy, language, you’ll discover a wealth of literary possibilities that may astonish you and inspire your next written work. Certain people or events, such as Leo Szilard or the Battle for Castle Itter, are overlooked and ignored, and writing a work of historically accurate fiction about them can be enlightening to the public. 

More commonly known events and characters, like the destruction of the Berlin Wall or the life of Queen Victoria, can be brought to life and reimagined with new narrators and perspectives. However, there are three crucial things to remember when writing historical fiction, and they all focus on a key concept: respect.

1. Respect the character.

The first, perhaps most crucial, is to remember to respect the historical figures and people that you write about. Research is a key aspect and will greatly aid the process of honoring characters. General textbooks and almanacs are wonderful for finding inspiration, but once you find a person to write about, go deeper with primary sources, personal writings, etc. These will allow you to sculpt a well-rounded and accurate character. When writing about a person who actually existed, it is important to not change their personality, appearance, religion, gender, sexuality, or race in order to make them more relevant or likable. This is a grave error that is not considerate of the individual, and it should be avoided. 

Other things, such as mentioning their hobbies, friends, and family, help to remind the reader of the humanity of the character, which is something that can on occasion be lost in historical fiction. Of course, there are many other aspects to properly writing historical characters, but these are a few pointers that will hopefully serve you well.

2. Respect the reader.

It is also important to remember to respect the reader. While everything in historical fiction can seem new and exciting with differing architecture, fashion, and customs, the reader can often become bored with excesses of prose that aren’t related to the plot, themes, or dialogue. I often find myself including pages of descriptions of halls, libraries, gardens, and other such things in my writing, but I have picked up a phrase from my mother, “don’t assume your reader is dumb.” While some descriptions can be beautiful and grounding, it is usually wise to assume that unless you’re writing about a very narrow or little-studied time period, that the reader is well informed on the basics of the culture of that time.

3. Respect the time period.

Finally, it is crucial to remember to respect the time period. It is important to remember that you are writing about a different time with different cultures, politics, and technology. Unless you’re writing sci-fi, fantasy, or satire, don’t write about a Confederate soldier uploading a meme to his Twitter account in the midst of battle. If your character climbs into a car, ensure that it is the right model and year and decide whether or not this character would have a chauffeur or even be able to afford a vehicle. 

When you’re naming characters (which is one of my favorite parts of writing), research the origins of the name, as some have shifted in popularity, use, and even the gender to which they’re typically given. 

And while it can be agonizing at times, remember to accurately portray the political climate of the time period. Racism and sexism, to name just a few, were and are grave and serious issues that aren’t enjoyable to talk about, but they were central to many time periods, so I’d encourage you to resolve to write about these beliefs in a way that is hopefully accurate, yet respectful to all parties. 

I wish you good luck and endless inspiration, fellow writer!

Madalyn R. is a literature nerd who spends her days reading anything from Seuss to Joyce and writing poetry and flash fiction. She is working on completing her first novel, a gothic work set in the 1840s focused around the fragility of identity and memory. In her free time, you can find her attempting to play the ukulele and scribbling in journals. She hopes to pursue a career in academia as an English professor.

Top photo by Christian Fregnan on Unsplash.

During Camp Nanowrimo, Don’t Go Into the Woods to Write

Whether we prefer busy coffee shops or the comfort of our beds, we all have a favorite place to write. Today we have Jamie Lynne Burgess here to kick off a new blog series on writing environments by sharing a cautionary tale about a time where she was perhaps a bit too over overzealous in the search for the perfect writing spot:

On my second night in the cabin, the ants came in droves. They were on the larger side, which is to say that I could see their mandibles, and I imagined their tiny jaws clipping at my skin while I slept. So I did not sleep, because I expected to wake up and find the ants crawling all over me. To find that they had built a nest inside my sleeping bag. To find that thousands of ants had united and were carrying me aloft to their lair.

I went to the cabin because I wished to live—erm, well—deliberately. This cabin was at the end of a rutted-out road and a three-quarter-mile hill. I lugged my typewriter to the top. To my chagrin (and my mother’s delight), my phone still worked there. But I turned it off because I didn’t need the distraction. I went to write.

After five weeks in the cabin, I can tell you this: living alone in the woods does not help you become a better writer.

Hierarchy of Needs

In the cottagecore fantasy, the cabin is the place where the worries and self-doubt about my writing dissolve and disappear. The words flow naturally onto the page. I hardly need to revise. I found this (of course) to be fallacy. While in the cabin, I was too concerned with mundane, basic needs to do something higher-level, like create art. The hierarchy of needs, developed by
Maslow, describes the way humans must satisfy certain basic needs before they can move up the rungs toward self-actualization.

Physiological Needs

While in the cabin, there was no electricity or running water, so cooking took longer, and I needed to tend the wood stove for heat. While these little tasks can be pleasures of a life in the woods, too many unfamiliar factors make it difficult to create.

Safety

When the ants moved in, writing became a lost cause. My constant preoccupation with their activity was a distraction worse than Twitter. They might have been a minor threat, but the fact is I didn’t feel comfortable enough to be safe.

Love & Belonging

Though I daydreamed of the time I would be blissfully, utterly alone in Vermont, I found myself craving community. It’s no secret that accountability works for many writers—NaNoWriMo is a testament to that fact—and that a writing community offers great motivation.

Esteem

By the time I have satisfied the needs leading to esteem, it seems I am better able to create. Esteem is about mastery and feelings of accomplishment. Your own inner critic may be one of your greatest blocks toward achieving “esteem.” Inner critics are generally not allowed in NaNoWriMo: this month, it’s write first, edit later.

Self-Actualization

With basic needs met, writers can begin to create from a completely different space, one that isn’t predicated on fear or urgency for inspiration. This is when you face the page with no other needs but to write. And that is an entirely different challenge.

If you cannot escape to the woods, or another writing-place of your dreams, consider the ways your current environment is meeting many of your needs already: at home, you know the place well and are comfortable here. You do not need to exert any extra mental energy to navigate an unfamiliar place. Your current environment could be just the place for you to write from a place of calm. This writing could be your best.

And if you are not convinced, and you still wish to go into the woods, I encourage you to think carefully about the ways that your needs will be met there. How will you nourish yourself? Keep yourself warm? Will you feel a sense of security and belonging? And if it so happens that your cabin is invaded by ants, maybe you (unlike me) can use it as inspiration to write the next Metamorphosis.

Jamie Lynne Burgess is a writer in residence at Elsewhere Studios in Paonia, Colorado, where she is working on a novel about climate change in the South Pacific. She has lived in many places, including the Marshall Islands, France, and New England, and place is at the center of her work. Jamie Lynne is also the author of the Awake Tinyletter . Visit jamielynneburgess.com to learn more.

Top photo by Allie Smith on Unsplash.

There’ve been lots of song suggestions going around to make sure...

There’ve been lots of song suggestions going around to make sure that you wash your hands for at least twenty seconds, but — as we’re more the bookish types over here — we made a few with a literary spin (inspired by the Wash Your Lyrics generator). Stay safe and healthy by practicing some dramatic readings while you wash your hands, or suggest your favorite 20-second literary readings.

Image description: 

An infographic labeled “Hand-washing technique with soap and water”, with 13 panels depicting how to thoroughly wash your hands.  

Image #1 includes text beneath the panels from William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet:

“O Romeo, Romeo! wherefore art thou Romeo?
Deny thy father and refuse thy name;
Or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love,
And I’ll no longer be a Capulet. […]
‘Tis but thy name that is my enemy:
Thou art thyself, though not a Montague.
What’s Montague? It is nor hand, nor foot,
[…] nor any other part
Belonging to a man. O, be some other name.
What’s in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet.”

Image #2 includes text beneath the panels from Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen.

“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.

However little known the feelings or views of such a man may be on his first entering a neighbourhood, this truth is so well fixed in the minds of the surrounding families, that he is considered the rightful property of some one or other of their daughters.

‘My dear Mr. Bennet,’ said his lady to him one day, ‘have you heard that Netherfield Park is let at last?’”

Image #3 includes text beneath the panels from The Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll.

“’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
     Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
     And the mome raths outgrabe.

‘Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
     The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
     The frumious Bandersnatch!’

He took his vorpal sword in hand;
     Long time the manxome foe he sought—
So rested he by the Tumtum tree
     And stood awhile in thought.

[…] One, two! One, two!”

Text at the bottom of each image reads: “Adapted from National Health Service, who adapted from the World Health Organization Guidelines on Hand Hygiene in Healthcare. Created under the open government license. See http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-lisence/version/3/ for details.”

Join Camp NaNoWriMo This April!

Camp NaNoWriMo is your online writers’ retreat, designed to help you set and reach your personal writing goals. Join us this April for your next writing adventure!

For those of you who have joined us before, Camp NaNoWriMo looks a little different this year, as we’re hosting it on the new nanowrimo.org site. But the gist of it remains the same: set your own writing goals, join an online writing group, and give yourself a creative retreat this spring!

How can I participate in Camp NaNoWriMo?

To participate in Camp NaNoWriMo, just announce a project, then make sure to check “Associate with a NaNoWriMo event”, and select the current Camp NaNoWriMo event. You can announce your project starting in March for April’s Camp NaNoWriMo session, and in June for July’s Camp NaNoWriMo session.Once you’ve done that, you should be ready to start tracking your project! You’ll be able to start tracking your writing on April 1 / July 1 on our website!.Once you’ve reached your writing goal, the site will automatically confirm your win, and you’ll receive a certificate celebrating your achievement, along with a bunch of other winner goodies!Declare your Camp Project for April today!

When Creativity Seems Impossible

As much as we writers love writing, sometimes it isn’t always easy to actually sit down and do it. Today, Municipal Liaison Rebekah Loper is here to reassure you that it’s ok to have an “off” writing day, and to remind you that your creativity will come back to you:

Sometimes writing is hard.

And I don’t mean the act of actually sitting your butt in a chair and churning out those words.

I mean sometimes it’s hard to even think about writing, because there are instances in life when life overcomes creativity.

Over my thirteen years as a NaNoWriMo participant, and my ten years as a Municipal Liaison, I’ve completed several NaNos despite some very trying circumstances (many of which would have been legitimate reasons to just give up that year), and hopefully I can encourage any of you who might be struggling to find your writing voice through difficult times.

First off, though, I want to say one thing:

If you’ve been through a traumatic situation while in the midst of a creative project (or while you were gearing up to begin one) and found that your creative well suddenly went dry, it’s okay.

I’ve been there. I know. In June 2017, while I was working (on a deadline) to finish up edits and formatting on my book, The A-Zs of Worldbuilding, our elderly cat Winniford took violently ill, very suddenly, and passed away a mere ten days before her 16th birthday.

It was a shock.

I couldn’t touch my writing for two weeks. Winnie had been my writing companion, and I found I couldn’t sit at my desk without breaking down in tears. And when I tried to even do anything creative that wasn’t my book, I just… couldn’t.

I sat down one evening, deeply grieving, and figured out how much time I could afford to not write. I set a reminder on my phone for when I had to start working again, and then stopped thinking about it. And I grieved.

I promise—pinkie promise—that your creativity will come back. Give yourself some space, and let yourself reconfigure to your new circumstances. One day, it’ll be like the light switch was flipped on again and you’ll be able to create once more.

Let’s move on now, though, because we’re supposed to talk about NaNoWriMo and difficult circumstances, right?

For a while, it was a running joke between my co-ML and I about what might implode in my life just in time for NaNo. It all began in 2013, which goes down as the worst November year of my life. It culminated last year when my Grandmother passed away two weeks before NaNo began. The years in between (every NaNo season, almost like clockwork) were fraught with challenges like my husband losing his job, a dear friend being diagnosed with an autoimmune condition after life-threatening complications, and other pet woes.

So many of these could have been legitimate reasons to just give up (or not even try) during NaNoWriMo. So what have I learned through all of these trials?

That the act of creation can also be an act of healing.

Everything you experience in your life can help you write better stories and better characters, even your tragedies.

It’s perfectly okay to be living through a hardship and find yourself thinking in the back of your mind, “Oh. This is what grief feels like, physically. Now I can write such-and-such’s reaction better.”

It’s perfectly okay to have your characters live through your same hardships, and come out all right. Sometimes we need to see someone else—even a fictional someone else—live through the same thing we’re going through to know that we will be okay.

It’s okay to change your story. Seriously. When you do find yourself putting your characters through your own situations, change the ending. Give them the ending you wish you could have had. And sometimes, even through that, you’ll find that you do have the power to change parts of your real story.

But most of all, be kind to yourself. If all you can write on a trying day is five words, then write just those five words and go indulge in some other form of self-care.

Your stories will always be waiting for you.

Rebekah Loper began creating fictional worlds and epic stories as a child and never stopped. Now she also helps inspire others to write their stories through her volunteer work as a NaNoWriMo Municipal Liaison, and with her workbook, The A-Zs of Worldbuilding: Building a Fictional World From Scratch. Her most recent release, a fantasy short story titled The Path of Mercy, is available in Beatitudes & Woes: A Speculative Fiction Anthology. She blogs about writing and urban homesteading at rebekahloper.com, and has been a contributing writer for Fantasy-Faction.com. You can follow her on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Rebekah lives in Tulsa, Oklahoma with her husband, a dog, two formerly feral cats, a flock of chickens, and an extensive tea collection. She is often found battling the elements in an effort to create a productive, permaculture urban homestead on a shoestring budget.

Top photo by Matthew Henry on Unsplash.

What NaNoWriMo Taught Me About Journalism

Have you learned any skills from NaNoWriMo that you can apply to your job or life? Today, long-time participant Julia Peterson shares how NaNoWriMo has helped her in her career as a reporter:

A few months ago, I was standing on my tip-toes on a rickety bench, leaning over a slick pole, holding out a camera and trying very hard not to fall face-first into the side of a cow—and grinning, because I love my job. Working as a reporter has taken me to so many interesting places, from agricultural fairs to museum galleries and political rallies, and every day seems to bring something new and exciting.

And doing NaNoWriMo for the past six years has made me better at every part of my career. 

NaNo taught to respect a deadline—and to know when I can fudge it. If I don’t write exactly 1667 words on any given day, that’s okay, I can make them up tomorrow. But when midnight rolls around on November 30th, the words I have are all the words that count. So when I’m working on an article and feel the deadline breathing down my neck, I make a judgment call—can I ask for a bit of extra time to make this piece better, or does it just need to get done as soon as possible?

Another obvious advantage of writing 50000+ words three times a year for the past six years is that it has made me a much faster writer. Training my “writing muscles” to get this speed boost has given me a leg up with everything from transcribing interviews, writing articles, and doing school assignments as I pursue my master’s degree. And because I know how fast I can work, I’m able to take on more ambitious projects as well. 

“You can edit a bad page, but you can’t edit a blank page” is one of NaNo’s guiding philosophies that I have heartily embraced. When I’m feeling stuck on a story, I don’t waste time staring down at a blank screen—I make myself start typing. Sometimes, I’ll write a first draft full of notes like “QUOTE GOES HERE” or “FACT CHECK?” or just “FIX THIS,” but I know I can always come back and fill in these gaps later, and now I have a frame to build on.  

With the support of this wonderful NaNoWriMo community, I started pitching my work and ideas to agents and publications a couple years ago. Learning how to pitch succinctly, politely, and often, without taking rejection personally, has been the most important factor in building my journalism career, and I benefitted from so much good advice from experienced writers on the forums along the way. I’ve now learned to love it so much that I have a “pitch something to somewhere” reminder on my calendar every week!

Of course, the biggest skill NaNoWriMo has helped me build that I take with me into my journalism career is knowing how to search out opportunities for creativity. When I’m working on a novel in November, April, or July, I’ve learned to look for the nuances and little details that can make every scene pop (and/or buy me an extra 500 words). These days, when I’m out working on an article, I catch myself engaging these same habits—looking for the details readers will remember, the people whose voices can describe the issue best, and the stories no one has noticed yet. 

If I hadn’t discovered NaNoWriMo six years ago, I don’t know what I would be doing with my life now, but I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t be quite as good at it or having nearly as much fun. (And no, I didn’t fall into the cow!)

Julia Peterson is a journalist from Regina, Saskatchewan, and a six-year NaNoWriMo participant. She absolutely adores musical theatre and has a habit of coming in second at trivia competitions. Her greatest ambition is to travel back in time to meet Julie d’Aubigny, and will fully accept potentially being stabbed through the shoulder with a sword as a consequence of that dream. Her writing can be found in Plenitude Magazine, Reading in Translation, StarTrek.com, Eagle Feather News, and The Quad Town Forum.

Top photo by Wolfgang Hasselmann on Unsplash.