I’ve done NaNo since 2003 and tried Camp NaNoWriMo this past July. The
first four times I ‘won’ the 50 K challenge, but didn’t achieve it ever since, and didn’t achieve the goal for Camp either. I didn’t even get halfway there.
My Changed View
What I’ve come to realize is that I’m now putting too much pressure on myself to complete the marathon, to the point that I’m stalled to actually do so.
So, I’ll plan to try a different approach and see how it works for me: from now on I’ll use the start of a NaNo event to spur me to start a project (a novel in November, something else for Camp) but I won’t concern myself with completing the target by the deadline date.
Maybe by not pressuring myself I’ll succeed at it more often again. I want to always finish the book that I start, instead of leaving it to be forgotten when the event is over. Some of my past projects I already plan to revisit, some of them I need to rewrite from scratch because I no longer have my backups. Just as well, as the new versions won’t feel as clunky.
An Important Caveat
Note that I’m not bashing NaNoWriMo in the least. I’ve been a part of it since nearly its start (I think there were three before I began) and it can help an author to get the words out of their head – and my view may change yet again, many times in fact– but for now this is what I’ll try, and see how it works.
“Don’t Get it Right. Just Get it Written.” James Thurber
