NaNoWriMo 2021 Rebel?

About a month ago I noticed that NaNoWriMo¹ season was approaching. I considered participating as a rebel², but decided against it, opting instead to continue editing at my own pace.

And then I hit the last week of October. A fizzy feeling bubbled into my bloodstream. My YouTube feed sprouted NaNoWriMo references. And I found myself calculating how much work I would have to do to get past prepping and actually dive into edits on November 1st, the first day of NaNo.

I’ve been hit with NaNo fever, and can’t seem to accept more reasonable alternatives. My whole week is blocked out with Pomodoro sprints in the hopes that I can finish prepping this week. If I get enough done today (Saturday, October 30, 2021), then I’ll use Sunday to plan out November—rebel style, of course.

My sprint tracker is inspired by the one Sarra Cannon shows in on her Heart Breathings YouTube channel. I’m amazed how satisfying it is to add colored dots as I finish each sprint—highly recommend!

I’m tired of my slow pace. I want to be thorough, but I also want to move forward, dive in, make changes, get my story where I want it to be. Or closer, anyway. The fact is, there’s no way I can make my story perfect on this round (or ever). It’s almost like there’s a critical mass of changes that one editing pass can handle, and my inner editor is telling me I’ve reached it. It’s time to say good enough and just do it.

I’ll keep you posted about what I decide to do. I’m still leaving myself room to take it easy in November :o)

Are you participating in NaNoWriMo this year? What’s your plan?

P.S. Happy Halloween!

¹NaNoWriMo is short for National Novel Writing Month, an online even that happens every November. Writers all over the world try to win by completing the challenge of writing 50,000 words of a novel during the thirty days of November.

²A NaNoWriMo rebel is someone who participates in NaNoWriMo, but doesn’t follow the rules. Last year, I was a rebel because I was revising (not writing a new novel.) For more on how that went, see Any Rebels Out There?, NaNoWriMo 2020 Rebel, Can A Rebel Win NaNoWriMo?, and Losing NaNoWriMo 2020 and Incremental Progress.