I Wrote Every Day in November (Or, an #IShoWriMoMo Wrap-Up)

Greetings, good folks of the internet.

It's been a while, I know. Sorry about that. Blogging is still pretty strange to me. I'm really good at talking about my thoughts and rambling to all my friends nonstop about writing, but once you ask me to organize all that into one coherent post I lose focus. Alas, I did really mean to use this blog more.

But now I finally have something to talk about!

I'm sure you all know about #NaNoWriMo. Well, it just ended. And I didn't participate, not exactly. See, I know what my writing process is like. And 50,000 words in a month is just something that does not appeal to me. I have friends who are absolute machines when it comes to getting a ton of words down. Unfortunately, that's just not me. I'm a fairly slow writer. I agonize. I ponder. I meander. It's just how I am - and I'm cool with that.

But, I really love the camaraderie of NaNo, and all the writers-supporting-writers love that comes out of it. I wanted to participate in a way, my own way.

Years ago, when NaNo time rolled around, I did something my own way. I resolved to just write every day. That was my only goal, because I knew my limits. I still know them. I'd been experimenting recently with goals of just 100 words in my writing sessions, and even that had proven to be a challenge. And this year I wanted to challenge myself. Remember when I said I'm not a write-every-day person? Well.

I talked about my idea on Twitter, and another writer, the lovely Elizabeth Guilt, chimed in. She thought up the hashtag #IShoWriMoMo - 'I Should Write More Month.' And lo, a new challenge was born! No rules except the ones you set for yourself, because don't we all just want to write a little more?

I stuck to my goal of 100 words, and resolved to write at least that every day of November.

And, guess what, reader? That's exactly what I did.

I'm still in my rewrite of my novella Like the Raven, and dedicated my time this month to that story. In total I wrote approximately 11,500 words. To me, that's a lot. The last draft of this story clocked in at about 21k, and now we're over 36k and still growing. I'm immensely proud, considering that I still qualify myself as a fairly slow writer.

The one big lesson I'm taking away from this venture is this: The more consistently I wrote, the more I wanted to keep writing. Discipline and motivation go hand-in-hand, I guess. Who knew?

I'm so close to finishing this rewrite, and for that reason I'm going to try and carry this momentum into December, to finish this draft before the end of the year. I have about three more chapters to go and I think I can do it.

Yesterday was the first day I didn't write, after 32 consistent days of it. I was traveling and had some mishaps and the stress was just too much. But I'm back on the wagon now, and writing this! For this last stretch, I'm sticking with another hashtag, started by my friend Rob Killam: #90toDone. The concept is pretty simple. In his words, "Set a goal for whatever "done" means to you, then use the last 90 days to get there."

Now, I know I'm jumping in pretty late, but who cares! I love the writerly camaraderie and I'm feeling up to the challenge. Plus it fits right in with my goal of finishing this draft of Like the Raven by the year's end. We writers sure love to come up with snappy hashtags for our whims.

Anyway, do you have an end of the year goal? It's almost New Year's resolution time. I guess I ought to update you all on mine, since that was the subject of my previous and only other blog post. More on that later.

In the meantime, happy writing!