4 Steps to Making Each NaNoWriMo Event Your Own

While many people look forward to the 50K challenge in November, our upcoming Camp NaNoWriMo challenge in April can be a good time to try a new kind of writing project or set a goal of your own. If you’re looking for tips on personalizing your NaNo experience, NaNo Participant StephanieBraxton has some advice!

NaNoWriMo is known for being the Write 50,000 Words in 30 Days challenge. Like many things in life, National Novel Writing Month, and all of its accompanying events throughout the year, are what you make of them.

I’ve always been someone who liked writing by hand. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve found more convenience for the habit of writing in a composition book than a laptop. That is how I tackle NaNoWriMo three times a year, with a cheap Papermate pen and a $1 black and white composition notebook. I set my own goal, which is often dependent on what’s going on in my life at the time and what project I’m working on. Ifyou find yourself enchanted by the community and atmosphere around this challenge, but you’re scared or unable to commit to November’s 50k challenge, maybe try it another way. There are some things you’ll needto do first though.

1. Figure out your normal.

No matter how you write, find what is a normal and easy pace for you. For me, I can usually do 30 pages handwritten in 30 days, easy. That is my normal, average pace. It is the baseline from which I figure out how I can challenge myself.

2. Decide how much to challenge yourself.

This part may take some trial and error. You may have to adjust your goal if you realize the original one is not working. Even though I conquered a 75 page goal in the past, sometimes life is being crazy or the story itself is not cooperating, and I’ll have to lower my goal to 50 pages. The flip side of that is what happened to me last November, when I started out with a 50 page goal and ended up writing 78 pages.

3. Find ways to give yourself a boost.

I take my writing everywhere. I’ve written in the car while waiting at the dentist. I’ve taken a book light and attached it to my notebook, and written in the floor of mykids’ bedroom while I’m waiting for them to go to sleep. It doesn’t always work, but when something is important, we can find time for it.

4. Realize that each NaNoWriMo event is different.

It can be discouraging when you see people who commit to this challenge every year always hitting 50,000 words. Do not let that stop you from trying. Social media contributes to this falsehood that we should be able to do everything at 100% all the time, and that is just not always the case. I’ve had some epic flops of NaNoWriMos, but then I’ve come back to the challenge the next time and nailed my goal. Like writing itself, it has highs and lows.

Though I’ve had some good non-NaNoWriMo writing months, I find this challenge gets me to do more than I would any other time. Even being a rebel who always does handwritten and always does page goals instead of word count, I would not change the November event at all. Honoring the original idea that created NaNoWriMo isn’t stopping me from making thischallenge my own. In my opinion, the spirit of the event is just toget to writing, and that’s what it does for me, nearly every time.

I hope as April approaches, you feel that magic in the air that makesall writers put fingers to keyboard or pen to paper.

Happy Writing!

Stephanie Braxton is a working mama of two, married to a Forever DM of Dungeons and Dragons. Daylighting as an administrative assistant for anon-profit focused on adult literacy, she writes whenever andwherever she can purely for the joy of it.

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio from Pexels