NaNoWriMo participants- What have been your experiences? What is the biggest challenge?

Think of it instead as the literary equivalent of a sack race. There’s no way to keep your dignity, so you might as well get into the spirit of it and have fun, even if you fall on your face a few times. The same thing is happening to everybody else. Go ahead, laugh—and keep hopping.

For me and I think for many. the biggest challenge is just staying with it—grinding out your 1667 words per day whether they’re any good or not. I am a compulsive polisher, so turning off my inner editor and just going on without looking back is antithetical to my normal approach. It turns out to be good for me in the same liberated head-clearing way that Zen is good for my overly cerebral approach to life.

There’s no way to avoid having your story reflect yourself any more than you can keep your dreams from reflecting yourself. But I don’t write about my own life, which is very ordinary and dull (I like it, but no one will ever make a movie about it). My story last year was totally outlandish and weird, but it came from me all the same—from some part of me that surfaced only when all the usual rules were suspended. Surprise! That’s part of what makes it both revelatory and fun.

If you are drawn to the idea at all, why not give it a shot? It’s a chance to try something different. As a writer, surely you want to expand your horizons. Besides, it doesn’t cost anything, and there’s no penalty if you don’t finish. No matter what, as long as you grind out some words, you’ll have something you wouldn’t have had otherwise, and that’s a writing experience like no other. You know what? I bet you’ll learn something new about yourself in the process.

The biggest challenge for me is the issue of writer’s block. Sure, I planned out the skeleton the story before writing so I know where the “big picture” of the story is headed, but that doesn’t always help with the in-between. Sometimes I just plum run out of ideas.

But what I like about NaNoWriMo is that it forces me to write. I often have a great desire to go back and edit things and make everything perfect, but with this, I don’t have to worry about that. I just write. I just move the story along. I can go back and edit it later. I actually something like NaNoWriMo makes it much easier to write.

I’m somewhat of a regular writer, but I haven’t written anything terribly lengthy yet. Mostly short stories or “novellas” that haven’t been fully edited yet. And I’m not sure about the storyline reflecting me; it’s a horror/supernatural/sci-fi story about events that I’ve never experienced. However, numerous elements of my real life and certain Unsolved Mysteries cases have found there way into this tale.

I’m a regular hobby writer and I’ve attempted Nano 3 times. last year I succeeded, having been bitten by a sudden story idea just 2 days before the start. I wrote “seat-of-the-pants” style, the story itself was abysmal but I enjoyed it.

My usual obstacle is not having enought time. I can’t write on a working day. Three quarters of my non-working days are full of other things that can’t be put off. I only succeeded last year because I managed to take a week and a half holiday off work. In a typical November I get maybe ten hours writing time in a whole month.

This year I’m not attempting it. I did it once, so I know I can. That’s enough.

@Jeruba Ha! That is funny. Potato sack race. I love the Zen of writing.
@DominicX So you are writing this year? Is it your first year?
@downtide I understand not attempting after winning. I stopped art competitions for the same reason. I had proved myself.

Thanks so much for the input. It is very intriguing….. and tempting.

@DominicX

This is my second year. :)

I have never successfully completed NaNoWriMo, but I enjoy getting a bit of writing done each November. This year, I am off to a shaky start. I didn’t enjoy the voice of my narrator and decided to restart the thing (which is quite possibly a terrible idea, but why not?) I am enjoying my story much more now and will probably be able to crank out a decent chunk of text this weekend when I have a bit less work to do for school. Which is my other major issue: I am in the midst of graduate school applications and forcing myself to sit and write is not as appealing as I would like it to sound.

I do not write regular, but I should. That’s why I love projects like this.

My novel reflects parts of me, I suppose. Maybe a little :)

Good luck to everyone participating this year!

I successfully completed Nanowrimo last year. I’m a hobbyist and that was probably the most I’ve written in one month in my life.

My biggest challenge was finding the time to write, educate the kids, help my sister and keep everyone fed. I also get interrupted constantly so that made cohesive sentences terribly hard. Thank god the Nanowrimo gods don’t care about cohesiveness.

I’m not doing it this year as it messed around with my Christmas shopping (I hate hate hate Christmas shopping in December).