NANOWRIMO! (How a masochist can improve his/her writing.)

If you have not already guessed it, I am participating in what is known as NaNoWriMo! (National Novel Writing Month). If you don't know what it is, I'm sick of explaining it so go to their freaking website. www.nanowrimo.org  Freaking go there now or else you're going to be really lost during this post. 

Everyone all good? On the same page? Great, let's move on. 

So, for some reason this year there's a lot of writing people saying they don't see the point in NaNoWriMo. They say that they like spending more time with their characters, don't see the point in writing something that'll clearly be a disaster of a first draft, so on and so forth. And while I can see the point they're trying to make, I think they're overlooking all the ways that writers can benefit from taking this challenge, regardless of whether they win or lose. 

Benefits of NaNoWriMo

Connecting to a Community of Writers

NaNoWriMo brings together writers far and wide, both hobbyists and professionals, so it's a great way to meet your fellow wordsmiths. During High School when I was just starting to get passionate about writing this was the first exposure to other writers. And, in the experience I've had, this is a very friendly environment to get started in writing. You can ask questions, get feedback, or simply reach out to other writers without judgment or condensation. Granted every corner of the internet has it's trolls but for the most part people will sincerely want to help. And that is because everyone, newbie to veteran is in the same boat when it comes to NaNoWriMo. And that boat is....MAJOR CRUNCH TIME. Which leads into my second benefit. 

Writing on Deadline

Now see, this doesn't feel like a benefit but bare with me. No matter what profession you shall go into someday, be it jamming on a Saskatoon or CEO of I'm Freaking Awesome Corp., chances are you're going to come up against a deadline or two along the way. And that's good, it's natural, it's a part of the circle of life. But deadlines are never met with much cheer or joy. In fact, many people don't know what to do with deadlines. Sometimes just the thought of something dangling above you like that is enough to paralyze. Well, here's an environment where you can practice you're deadline meeting with no consequences. Because who doesn't love perpetual crunch time in the middle of holiday season?

Extended Free Write

If we can all be honest with ourselves for a moment here, NaNoWriMo will produce one of the crappiest first drafts you've ever written. Again, this is okay because you write every word as if the whole dang thing was due tomorrow morning six am sharp. And sometimes the crappiest of first drafts produce the best final products, just because they give you so much to work with. There are many great, really terrific books that came out of NaNoWriMo. (Ex: My second most favorite book of all time The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern and the brilliantly crafted Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen.) But this I think for most people, this is just a great way to build up your writing stamina. It's a 30-day extreme free write! You're going to come out of this with writing abs of steel.

Feels Good

It's going to feel pretty freaking great when you finish your word count. No matter the quality of the dribble you've slaved over for the past thirty days you're going to feel dang great that you hung on as long as you did, that you finished it. Because I don't care if you're a rookie or if your name's on a best seller list, writing a novel in a month is freaking hard for anyone. While you're trying to do it, it feels impossible. But you did it, hang your head high man! Fifty-k in a month, J. K. Rowling can't touch this! 

50% Off of Scrivener
So this perk seems minor in the face of all the other benefits I've listed, but guys, I bought Scrivener for my NaNo this year and it's delicious. (*Side Note: Scrivener is a word processor made for creatives developed by software company Literature and Latte. It has templates for movie scripts, comic scripts, novels, etc. Its normal price is about forty dollars.) It's awesome when it comes to keeping all your notes in one place so you don't have to pop back and forth between windows and shift through endless documents just to find that one detail you needed for that one thing. And Scrivener loves NaNoWriMo. They offer an extended free trial during NaNoWriMo that begins in October and ends in December, you get twenty percent off for just signing up for NaNo and if you win you get fifty percent off!

Guys, do it for Scrivener.


That's all I've got for you for now. As you can tell, I'm gearing up for NaNo so that means that'll either I'll post the most I ever had in this month then I ever had in an attempt to escape from my monstrous NaNo, or I'll fall off the face of the earth for a month. Until then, what do you think? Is NaNo a challenge worthy of the best and the worst of us or is it a colossal waste of a month? 
'Til next time nerds.