Today is the first day of November, a.k.a. the starting date of NaNoWriMo! Wheee!
What is NaNoWriMo, you ask?
NaNoWriMo is a yearly challenge where you basically write a 50,000-word novel over the month of November. It comes out to writing about 1,700 words per day, and, while I’ve been participating off and on since 2006, I’ve never actually won, a.k.a. finished a 50k-word novel in 30 days.
And honestly, I’m okay with that. Because this singular event, while fun and awesome and empowering, does not define who I am as a writer or creator. Failing literally every single year at NaNoWriMo does not mean I am a failure as a writer. (Same goes for you, okay?)
I say all of this because asking whether someone is “doing NaNoWriMo this year” feels like an increasingly loaded question. The event, while intended to be purely for fun, can bring up some uncomfortable issues for many writers, and can lead to a sense of FOMO (a.k.a. fear of missing out) in writers who aren’t able to participate.
There have been years where I haven’t been able to participate in NaNoWriMo for a variety of reasons, and every time I’ve ended up wistfully wishing that I had somehow made it happen. I felt like I was missing out on a really cool party that every other writer was attending, that I wasn’t trying hard enough to be a “real” writer, that everyone else had some kind of writing energy superpower that I lacked.
I felt FOMO every time one of my writing friends posted an update on social media about their NaNoWriMo progress, and felt a little sting of pain every time I saw the little light-blue logo or the #NaNoWriMo hashtag flash past on my feed. I constantly felt like I was being left behind.
FOMO sucks, and I encourage you to Google “how to deal with FOMO” if it’s something you find yourself struggling with. I found a lot of great ideas and solutions from reputable sources, and I hope you do, too.
In the meantime, if you are doing NaNoWriMo this year, connect with me and we’ll be “buddies.”
And if you’re not doing NaNoWriMo this year, for whatever reason, you are still an amazing writer and a valuable member of the writing community. We’re not leaving you in the dust, I promise. You’re doing your own thing, and that is incredibly important and necessary.
And I’ll probably be joining you in a handful of days anyway, when I inevitably fail NaNoWriMo yet again. 😉
Words & warmth,
Sarah
P.S. I’m giving a talk about podcasting, marketing, and SEO on Saturday, November 8th for the 2021 Leads to Sales Summit, and tickets are freeeeeee! Register here. 🙂