#DevilWriMo – A #NaNoWriMo alternative
50,000 words in a month is a lot of words. Each year, I’ve tried NaNoWriMo. The only time I “won” was 2014, and even then I had to somewhat cheat and also include the words I wrote for my university essays (so I wouldn’t fail), which was about 10k of it. I’ve had to admit that I am not good at sprinting at a pace of 1667 words a day consistently. I like to stop. I like to think. I like to research, or re-outline if I feel something’s gone wonky. I’m a tortoise, not a hare, as I keep saying, and that’s fine. I still manage to write at least a book a year, and that’s a fine pace for me.
The last few months, though, I’ve barely been drafting. Between a move to a new city, starting a new part-time job, two autumn colds, and having lots of edits, copyedits, and proofing, progress on my latest WIP has drastically stagnated. My friend Julia Ember and I were chatting on Twitter about how we wished we could do #NaNoWriMo, but our schedules just wouldn’t permit that amount of frantic drafting this time around. So we compromised.
#DevilWriMo keeps the Halloween fun alive. The goal is to write 666 words per day, adding up to about 20k. I’m hoping to finish a short story rewrite and make a dent in Amnesia Book, which is the code name for my WIP.
Julia and I will be checking in frequently on the hashtag (I’m @LR_Lam and she’s @jules_chronicle), and other people have already joined in. So if you want the camaraderie of #NaNoWriMo without the guilt that you’re not able to do the full 50k, please join us!
Image credit on the #DevilWriMo Pinterest board I made (procrastinating already? Damn it.)
