A bonus post for you!
Now that NaNoWriMo is kaput, I’ve been casting around to see what else is out there.
In truth, NaNoWriMo inspired me, but it wasn’t really my cup of tea. In the last several months, I’ve felt creatively drained in the evenings. So, I took a look around out there to find something that might give me extra motivation. Something that would help me get over that “oh, I can’t be bovvered!” hump and get some more words down.
However, after looking at a bunch of different alternatives, I didn’t find anything that struck me.
So, I’ve decided to create one myself:
Graham’s Novel Writing Month or #GraNoWriMo
It’s very bare bones and, as I’ll get into, very much spur of the moment. My personal goal is to write 1,000 words per day on my novel for a total of 30,000 words in November. Why? I’m coming up to the final push to get a working draft together before the Laughing Fox writing retreat next February (where I hope to pull it all together into a good, working draft), and November seems like a good month to get cracking.
Why Am I Inviting You to #GraNoWriMo?
Last night, as I was making plans, I wondered, Does anyone else want to come along for the ride?
Here’s what I’m thinking:
A no-pressure, good vibes-only writing group for the month of November.
We state our own personal goals – doesn’t have to be 50,000 words or a complete novel or anything. Personally, I’ll be shooting for 30,000 words or 1,000 words per day. You don’t even have to state goals! It’s all about the camaraderie, and nothing about the guilt.
I’ll send out a short, personal message to the group every morning to motivate and inspire us.
We can check in with each other, ask questions, provide support. (I’m not quite sure exactly how this will work yet. Maybe a Discord channel, maybe email… I’m open to suggestions!)
Possibly a Zoom meeting together or two. More things to figure out!
The whole point of #GraNoWriMo is for you to set your own goals, not follow someone else’s idea of what you should be working on and how productive you should be. #GraNoWriMo is just a fun way to help you meet those goals!
As you can tell, this is spur of the moment. In an ideal world, I would have already done all the planning. The alternatives would have been:
Wait until next year. Why, when I can do it this year?
Do it in December. Possibly the worst month to try to write every single day.
Do it in January. Cutting it too close for the work I want to have done for the February retreat.
So, November it is!
I’ll be capping the total to the first 10 people signed up, just so I can get a feel for how this might all work. It will be a nice, small, intimate group though would help charge my batteries, and (I hope) inspire others to work on their own projects!
Sound interesting? Sign up on my Write Wildly website! Or, Drop Me a Line if you have any questions first.
If you’re looking for some creative motivation, community, and a way to implement your own personal writing goals in November, then join me!
And if you know someone else who might be interested, feel free to send them this email, too.
Hope to see you in November!
~Graham
email me if you get lost.
When I first saw the name, I thought: "How clever! A writing month for grandparents!" :)
Did you know Chris Baty is one of the folks behind https://nano2.org/ ?