It's Thursday today and this means that... it's time for a new WRIMOS UNITE post!
Today, I wanted to share with you my personal NaNoWriMo experience. Let's go back to the beginning, shall we?
I first heard of NaNoWriMo during the summer of 2013.
I did my research and thought it was really cool and so, I decided to try and do Camp NaNo that year... What a fail!^^ After three days I had given up, but I wasn't disappointed because I had not taking it seriously.
When school started, I thought it would be nice to actually try the real deal, the official NaNoWriMo. I was indecisive until about two weeks before the start of November, and I got my idea the day before it started! I wasn't stress or anxious, just really excited to start writing.
I remember coming home from school on November 1rst and going to my room to write. I think it took me two hours to write 1667 words! Thankfully, I discovered the word sprints not long after and they helped me a lot! I fell behind about halfway through the month, but manage to catch up a couple of days before the end of it and on November 30, I wrote my 50 000th word. In the end, I wasn't even close to finishing my story, but I realised that while I knew how I wanted it to end, there were a lot of details that were unclear and so, I never continued it.
Now fast forward a year later, to fall 2014.
I was really determined to find someone who would do NaNoWriMo with me and I manage to convince a friend to try it. That year, I was really excited for my story; it was more personal, really different from the year before, and I had a bit more of a plan. November started and from the beginning, I struggled to meet my word count every day. I had started working Thursday/Friday nights and Saturday during the day, and finding the time to write was not easy. I brought my lap top to school every day to try and write as much as possible during lunch. I fell behind, which was not a big deal to me since it had happen the year before too. That time around, I did have trouble catching up; in fact, I never did catch up until the last day. The word sprints weren't doing it for me anymore and I couldn't find enough time to write. I finished my story 6 days before the end of the month and started writing short text and letters to get to 50 000 words; I won NaNoWriMo for a second year in a row.
Then in May 2015, I decided that I wanted to do Camp again, except this time, I would do it for real. I hadn't been sure of it, but I was having trouble dealing with stuff and someone told me that writing about it would help me manage everything. So that's what I did! Writing that story was nice because while I didn't have a plan, I knew how the story ended since it was mine, and I could skip ahead and come back to write whatever I wanted. Halfway through April, I realized that I had written everything I wanted to write about and so, deciding that my primary goal was achieved, I called it quit for Camp NaNo.
My first year, I met some really cool people. My second year, I can say that I had a load of fun at the kick-off party and simply writing my story. And finally, when I did Camp NaNo last April, it helped me on a more personal level.
Every single one of my experiences with NaNoWriMo has helped me grow somehow and I've always came out of it with something positive.
I hope that I motivated you a least a tiny little bit to participate this year because it is so worth it!
Take care guys!
Sophie
