Writing has always been a huge passion of mine and part of the reason why I joined Her Campus. When I was a kid, I’d always make up various lands and characters, including one named after Sangria (ie the alcohol, not sure where I got that from!). My little sister and brother used to have to sit as I explained for the millionth time a cast of characters and settings which would make a series of books that I would make.
One particular story ran through our childhood, it wasn’t very good but it was something I’d used to tell to my sister when we both couldn’t sleep. It was a complete rip off of ‘The Gingerbread Man’ in which the Gingerbread man bit a pig and turned the pig into a piece of gingerbread, who then met a cow and bit the cow, repeat for a few animals and I called it Gingerpig (so original but I was 10 so cut me some slack).
Gingerpig and friends went through many adventures including space, under the sea and rescuing various Disney princesses from certain death. They lulled us both to sleep and became something which we looked forward to.
I think everyone who read a lot when they were younger has always had a small dream in the back of their mind to publish a book. To write a story and see it in print! I’ve wanted to be a lot of things over the years, archeologist, teacher, historian, those people who dress up as historical figures and walk around the Tower of London. Being an author seemed like a far off dream until I started writing again a year or so ago. I published some poetry within my college and joined Her Campus last year!
So, when one of my newsletters started talking about their preparation for NaNoWriMo a few weeks ago, it piqued my interest. What does that snazzy acronym stand for?
To cut a long story short (ish) NaNoWriMo is National Novel Writing Month, an American site which helps people setting the goal of writing 50k words aka a first draft of a novel in 30 days. Which is about 1,600 words a day give or take. It seems possible. They have their own websites where you can write your draft and meet other writers from around the world. Last year 413,295 writers participated which is more people than Monaco!
So why am I participating in NaNoWriMo?
(try saying that three times fast)
- I’ve never finished a writing a story
I can write poetry and do, quite often but for some reason book ideas fizzle out and it takes months for me to revisit them. I actually have two drafts of two different novels sat in my google drive with about 7,000 and 6,000 words apiece. Maybe I’ll revisit them as part of my NaNoWriMo goals! That leads me on to my next reason
- You don’t have to write a 50k word novel
The point of NaNoWriMo is to finish a project, whether that be editing your first draft, finishing a project you started years ago or starting a completely new project. The point is to finish the month with something complete and something to work on.
- Last but not least, I’m going to get myself a little treat if I get to 25k words!
I think even getting to halfway would be an achievement so of course I’m going to celebrate it!
So these are my main reasons for trying it. I want to complete something by the end of the year. I’ve started getting a bit more confidence in my writing and I’ve even done something which I never thought I’d do! I’d rather not jinx it, in case nothing comes of it, so it may be mentioned in a future article but I want everyone to know I’m proud of myself! And I think if I wrote it in an article before telling my mum what I’ve done, she’d be pretty upset (hi mum!).
If you’re interested in writing whether it be fiction or non-fiction definitely give the website a look and sign up if you’re interested! Happy Writing :)