As armchair novelists the world over are all-too aware, November is National Novel Writing Month (or NaNoWriMo). It’s that special time of year when the folks who’ve always wanted to write the Great American Novel [but never bothered to find the time] can now publicly hold each other accountable and and inspire (or guilt) one another into making their first draft a reality.
This idea has been aped by others in differing fields — National Blog Posting Month (or NaBloPoMo), for example — which makes November a kind of annual inspiration for jump-starting creativity.
But you don’t have to be an aspiring writer, blogger or narcissist to harness the power of November. All you need are three little prompts:
- A reasonable goal
- A clearly-defined measurement of success
- The power of peer pressure to hold you accountable
NaNoWriMo works because its practitioners have all of the above:
- They expect to bang out a first draft of their novel by midnight on November 30
- That novel must be 50,000 words long
- Participants update their daily word counts online, publicly sharing their progress (and inviting encouragement if they fall behind)
The goal of NaNoWriMo is not to write the world’s greatest novel. It’s to write a novel, because if you don’t do it now, when will you do it? Plus, if writing a novel seems impossible, imagine what else in your life will suddenly seem achievable after you’ve done the impossible in a seemingly unreasonable amount of time.
So if you have a pet project that’s been gnawing at the back of your mind — and we all do — why not make November the month that it actually happens? Not an author? Go with your passion. Draw a cartoon every day. Paint a painting. Take a picture. Build a website. Write a song. Start a business. What you do is less important than simply doing something.
NaNoWriMo is challenging, terrifying and, ultimately, inspiring. It works because it shouldn’t, and people love to prove their own doubts wrong. Find a way to make that kind of empowering flippancy your own — engage in NaDoSoMo.
Tags: Blogging, inspiration, perception, writing
