A Writing Challenge I Don't Want to Win

From a young age, I've always loved telling stories both verbally and written. But the older I got the more I wanted to move over to written.

Come college, I hit a sprint of reading and writing but mostly didn't have the time or enough motivation to write as much as I wanted. With my course load it didn't seem possible, but I still wanted to try.

One day as I was talking to my roommate about this, she mentioned her friend participating in something called NaNoWriMo and that I should check it out.

After some googling, I came to find it was a competition held each November where you had 30 days to write a 50,000 word novel. If you won, you got a certificate.

I love a good challenge, but this was one I couldn't do at that point in time because I didn't have enough hours in my day to complete it. Each year since I've tried to convince myself to start the challenge, hell I watch YouTubers do it all the time. But as November comes closer, I realize why I won't be and most likely will never participate in the challenge.

5 Reasons not to Participate in NaNoWriMo

First Draft

When it comes to writing 50,000 words in 30 days you know your first draft is going to be awful. As most drafts are. Knowing myself and my writing style writing a really first crappy draft won't do it for me.

I know I would toss my first draft out the door having to start completely fresh. Something I just don't want to do. I would like to salvage something of the first draft and writing one in a hasty manner isn't for me.

Word Count

50,000 words or 1,667 a day is a lot. That's almost three pages of writing. The last time I was able to write three pages was about something that I experienced firsthand. This made it easy because I knew exactly what happened. But when it comes to storytelling you have to fill in the blanks and you might not know all the details as of yet. This can take several hours. I don't know about you, but when I get home from work, I don't want to spend another 3-5 hours trying to knock out a few pages of writing just to hit a word count I might not get to.

Traction

I'm someone who when they get an idea I have to do it in that moment before I lose traction. With longer word count novels, or in this case 50,000 words, it's hard to keep traction when you don't get results right away. It can be so discouraging and oftentimes make one feel like they lost the battle before it even begun. Instead of waiting until November, I'll write when I have the idea come to me and not put any pressure on myself as to not lose the momentum needed to finish the story.

Planning

Even though NaNoWriMo takes place in the month of November, you actually have to start the process in October, otherwise known as Preptober. During the month, you get ready by putting your scenes in order, having your characters fleshed out, plotting, etc. Between my birthday, Halloween, and then the upcoming holidays of Thanksgiving and Christmas I once again do not have time to flesh everything out a month in advance like some people do. I also hate planning stories and like it when they naturally flow.

Chore Like

I think writing should be a fun activity especially if you do it as a hobby. When put on a time crunch, even though it has a fun spin of a challenge attached, I feel like NaNoWriMo seems more like a chore I have to do instead of get to do. Writing can turn from something fun to something you dread. I really don't want this damping my spirits since I love to write so much. So, for now, I'll keep it a hobby.

Bonus: The Challenge

Now the challenge is to write a 50,000 word novel. But not everyone sticks to the challenge. Instead, they write blog posts or multiple short stories which is great if they need to get those things done, but I don't feel like it's the entire point of the challenge. It's to write a novel. I'm more on the literal side of things so if I were to ever do the challenge, it would be to write a novel instead of the other options(they should have a month just for those items).

Final thoughts

Not all writing challenges are for every writer. And that's okay. I found out I don't want to participate in NaNoWriMo to get my novel done. I would rather take my own time without feeling the pressure.

Instead, I like to challenge myself in other ways such as the NYC 250 Word Microfiction Challenge where you get to write a 250-word story and compete against other writers for a cash prize. It's fun and has an actual award attached to it. It's also a great way to build your short story writing skills.

Do you participate in NaNoWriMo? If so, have you ever won? What do you like or don't like about the challenge? Tell me in the comments below!