Is NaNoWriMo Right for You?
Written by MVWG Member Amy Jo Van Arsdall
Have you ever hung out with someone who’s such a fan of something that they might as well be from Mars? I mean they’ve got their own lingo, their own idioms, their own everything. That’s how it was for me back in 2012 when I first participated in this annual event called National Novel Writing Month or NaNoWriMo. But that feeling didn’t last long.
NaNoWriMo participants, or “WriMo’s” as they’re called, are some of the most welcoming and friendly people you could want to meet, with an abundance of that delightfully nerdy sort of friendly. I don’t know about you – but I just love them for that. Basically, the goal of NaNoWriMo is to write a 50,000 word novel during the 30 days of November. The definition of “novel” is pretty loose. You can work towards your goals on your own, or you can connect with other writers through events called write-ins, where writers come together (virtually nowadays) and offer so many kinds of help; encouragement, ideas, exercises, and so much humor. Whatever your genre you like to write, someone’s there with you. Whatever writing skill you want to build – someone else is working on it too. Challenging yourself to finish will show you how to really shut that inner editor down.
There are all sorts of kudos for participating and winning. And – they give out coupons for cool stuff like writing software to help you even more, and swag, and digital stickers for you to share on all your social media. How often have you wanted to pick up the habit of regularly taking time out of your day to engage in writing? How often have you wanted to connect with other writers pursuing that same goal? Well, here it is! A ready made goal, and hundreds of thousands of people all across the country and around the world who will be participating. There are forums on the NaNoWriMo website with tips and tricks for getting going and staying motivated and pushing through whatever block has blocked your creative flow and it’s all free and it’s all available 24/7.
As for those relationships – you might be wondering, “Can that really be true?” It was thanks to NaNoWriMo that I met a few people you might know. I met Jess Witkins, Heidi and Scott Blanke. Teri Holford, Kyla Weeks, Jonathan Lamb and so many more. Kyla and Jess were there at that very first write in I went to back in 2012. None of us had any idea where those initial tentative hi’s and hello’s would lead us. Looking back now I can see the trail leading from that first NaNoWriMo to storytelling with Bluff Country Tale Spinners and on to MVWG. I’ve even “won” (made it to the 50,000 word mark) quite a few of those years I participated.
So I suppose it’s not really a surprise that along the way I decided to sign up to be an ML for NaNo. ML stands for municipal laison. If you sign up with NaNoWriMo you’ll see that our local region is called Wisconsin Elsewhere. Not Milwaukee. Not Madison. We’re Elsewhere. And we’re proud of it. From there it was a no brainer to join up with some more local folks to form what is now called Great River Writes. I’m so honored to be able to be a part of a group that makes writing and access to great writers offering great writing advice available to our very own local creative community of writers.
There’s never a perfect time to add a writing goal. But if what you’re really hungry for right now is to up your writing game, meet more creative types, and enjoy some fresh goals, banter, and ideas for how to write and write and write. If you’re hungry for that – then there’s no such thing as a bad time to start. There’s no downside. It might be the one of the best things about 2020!
Amy Jo is a member of the MVWG Rewrites critique group and enjoys being a regular reader at the La Crosse Public Library’s Adult Story Time.