For years I've considered doing NaNoWriMo but it it felt too big to take on. In the past 18 months though I've done a lot of writing, including short stories, poetry, guided visualisations and I've planned and written bits of a novel (and got totally stuck on it).
This year is different though, and I'm going for it.
I knew I'd need a distraction and alternative focus in Autumn due to work bring stupidly busy, Mr CB having surgery and the prospect of Winter on the horizon. I love a creative challenge so it feels like it's NaNoWriMo time at last.
But - with everything else I have going on at the moment I still didn’t like the idea of writing 1700 words a day, so I made my challenge manageable by beginning on 1st October and writing 900 words a day.
I believe that when setting goals you have to be honest with yourself about what makes a manageable challenge and what is a challenge too far. Thousands of people have successfully drafted a novel in a month but I don't need to do that. I can go my own way, achieve the same thing and get the fun of a challenge with with a deadline, without the extra pressure.
As things stand I'm several thousand words ahead from where I need to be at this stage and I'm enjoying it a lot. Having a daily word count target makes me write through the bits I'm stuck on, and I've found that when I do this I usually come up with the next idea and get unstuck.
The NaNoWriMo prep page has been an excellent resource and got me past the first obstacle of finding ideas for a novel. Then it covered how to plot and come up with characters and places.
I found the 'What's your planning style?' quiz helpful as I was able to find an approach that's working for me. When I've tried to write a novel before I've planned it in such great detail that it lost it's fun; this time I've planned in some broad plot points, basic character ideas and locations then worked it out as I write. This keeps me motivated because I always want to find out what happens next.
So far I've had my moments when I've felt stuck but I've kept going and I'm keen to see where the story goes. Then I plan on leaving it alone for a few weeks before coming back with fresh eyes to do the first re-write, and go from there.