Another NaNoWriMo come and gone

© Les Palenik | Dreamstime.com

I seem to be the antithesis of NaNoWriMo. During the month of November this year I contributed fewer than 500 words to the future of Jeep Thompson, heroine of my next (unless some bizarre inspiration strikes and I write something completely different from my in-progress) novel, working title Jeep Thompson and the Lost Prince of Venus.

Meanwhile, with an hour left before the clock strikes December, NaNoWriMo.org — official chronicler of National Novel Writing Month — is recording about 368,000 completed novels by the more than 798,000 writers who pledged to write a 50,000-word novel over the past 30 days. 

My hearty congratulations to you all, who proved to yourself that generating 1,666 words a day is far from impossible.

Putting one sentence after another after another until you’ve completed telling a complex story is a challenging endeavor, which is why only half of the folks who try manage to reach the finish line. Completing any challenge is worth a celebration. 

A hat tip to the other half, however, for setting a goal and going after it. Most people, I dare say, do not set goals, or if they do they’re along the lines of “I want to write a novel someday,” not “I want to write a 50,000-word novel in 30 days,” which is a defined, measurable goal. The people who did not complete their task by the end of Nov. 30 don’t have the luxury of saying, “Well, it’s not someday yet,” but I bet they wrote more of a novel than the someday dreamers.

My consolation prize is that I wrote 30 more blog posts this month and haven’t missed a day since the day before Aug. 1, 2020. It’s not as good as having Jeep solve her Venusian problems, but December is another month — and it’s got one more day, so I only need to hit 1,613 words a day.

Published by WarrenBluhm

Wordsmith and podcaster, Warren is a reporter, editor and storyteller who lives near the shores of Green Bay with his wife, two golden retrievers, Dejah and Summer, and Blackberry, an insistent cat. Author of It's Going to Be All Right, Echoes of Freedom Past, Full, Refuse to be Afraid, Gladness is Infectious, 24 flashes, How to Play a Blue Guitar, Myke Phoenix: The Complete Novelettes, A Bridge at Crossroads, The Imaginary Bomb, A Scream of Consciousness, and The Imaginary Revolution.

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