I wrote a ‘novel’ this November during NaNoWriMo. The ‘novel’ was of questionable childish topic and likely even more questionable quality. But the topic of the novel is of little importance. It was the experience of writing that mattered.
Here’s what I learned from NaNoWriMo:
- NaNoWriMo builds resilience. It’s like running a marathon. Sometimes daily. You have to push through and write even if you barely have anything to write.
- It helps you see the value of putting in a consistent effort. The results are quite visible. 30 days of just over 1666 each day and at the end you have a whole novel!
- It’s an emotional roller coaster. I liked the experience first, then struggled, then hated it, then wanted to quit but couldn’t because I’m not a looser, I them accepted the required daily word count, then I hated the struggle, and then finally felt great deal of accomplishment after completing the novel.
- It made me appreciate good writing more. After this exhausting effort I had a novel that sucks with a very linear plot and no subplots. It makes me appreciate the skill and work of good writers. Especially if they frequently and consistently produce good work.
- It provides a daily dose of feeling accomplishment (if you reach your word count despite a struggle to do so)
- NaNoWriMo is addictive. Likely because of above. I hated the experience but for some reason it’s December and I want to do it again (but I won’t)
- It’s a further reinforcer that art of any kind is 90% perspiration and 10% inspiration. People who say they’re awaiting inspiration before they write wool never write anything. Same can be said in music, painting, etc.
- I’m not a writer. Do you have novel writing aspirations? If you want to see if you are a writer do NaNoWriMo.