For those of you who aren’t familiar with Camp NaNoWriMo, this is a National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) challenge that takes place twice a year, in April and July. What’s the challenge? You get to decide.
Maybe you need to finish drafting your novel. Maybe you need to send out queries. Whatever. You set the goal.
Why bother? Here are three reasons.
2020
That’s right. Reason number one is this year. This incredible, over-whelming year. I have to say, March and April I wrote and wrote. Pandemic? Pfft. I had deadlines. Now I’ve met my deadlines and gotten two rejections in three days. I need some encouragement and a . . .
Deadline
I make my best progress when I have a deadline. And I don’t mean my own deadline. External deadlines are superior. If it is just my deadline, I can find a reason to blow it off. See, there’s this new opportunity that is only available for two months. I signed up for a class. My shower floor really needs to be scrubbed. Nope, I need an external deadline to keep me moving. And I am seriously Type A so this works even better because I am part of a . . .
Community
Post your goal at NaNoWriMo.org and become part of the community. There are events and motivationsl bits, but even if you don’t spend a lot of time interacting with your fellow writers, you have publicly announced your goal. This means that other people can see whether I succeed or fail. In truth, 99.9% of them probably don’t care but that’s not keeps me moving. It is the fact that they could notice. And more importantly, I notice.
I know, I know. There are drawbacks to being goal driven. I get that. But I also know myself well enough to know that if I want to get this done . . . I’ve been fiddling around for months . . . I need to sign up for Camp NaNoWriMo. You can find me on their site as Nonfiction Writer! Is anyone with me?
–SueBE
One Writer's Journey 