Hey there rebel!
Let me guess… you were freaking out before NaNoWriMo started - whaaaaat, everyone else is prepared, but I’m not ready!!! - and then you thought you couldn’t possibly write 50K words in one month, and now you feel like you’re falling behind because everyone’s word count is higher…
You know what? Screw that.
Stop thinking about the way everyone else is doing NaNoWriMo. You do you.
From the start, I said that I’d be a NaNo Rebel and:
not write a novel
probably not write 50K
pantse the whole thing, no outlines
write short stories that aren’t even connected to one another
encourage every other NaNo Rebel out there
etc.
And I’m OK with that. This fits me much better than anything else. :)
“The rules are guidelines that are supposed to help you, not restrict you and make you miserable.”
As soon as I shared my message on twitter, everyone responded immediately and overwhelmingly with enthusiasm because “doing NaNoWriMo your way” relieves much of the stress that’s surrounding the challenge.
Don’t get me wrong, NaNoWriMo is a great experience!
But some of us just don’t thrive under pressure like others can…
Raise your hand if pressure makes you stop doing things. If stress makes you useless. If too much ambition makes you choke. If wordcounts and deadlines make you want to run and scream. If you ever wanted to be like the other people, who seem to be perfectly happy running around with their heads in their hands. Raise your hand if you wanna do thing thing YOUR WAY.
There you have it… you either raised your hand or you didn’t.
And there’s your plan for this year’s NaNoWriMo. It’s only Day 5, so you can decide to join me now and write something different - whatever the hell you want - or to write fewer words (or more) every day - I’m writing 500.
It’s about the daily habit for me and I like being a rebel so… yeah.
If you wanna figure your way of doing NaNoWriMo, answer one simple question: WHY.
Why are you doing NaNoWriMo? What’s your end goal?
If your goal is to have a finished first draft, you might have to do 50K after all and even keep writing after November ends, but if your goal is to write every day and have fun, then maybe you don’t need to “win” after all.
You don’t really need that winning certificate to be a winner.
You’re a winner if:
you write every day
you enjoy this experience
you learn something
Ultimately, the choice is yours - will you rebel it up with me?
