NaNoWriMo
By: Cat Hipps
As a newbie to the book world, well that’s not right. I’ve been an avid reader for as long as I can remember. I remember thinking as a youth that the only way my parents could properly punish me would be to take my books away but what parent in their right mind would take books away as a punishment. So what do I mean really? I don’t know. As a newbie to the professional book world? Maybe? In June of 2021 I think I accidentally stumbled upon my calling. Prior to that I was approaching a life milestone that “required” me to return to the working world but anxiety and a pandemic had other plans for me. Knowing that I didn’t feel like I was cut out for the traditional 9-5 job any more I started to look into alternative ways to contribute to the household income. In my search I came across lots of get rich quick schemes. While, don’t get me wrong, I would love to get rich quick, I knew it wasn’t a realistic goal. If it seems to good to be true it usually is. In this case I was introduced to the world of audiobooks. Ok, again, I knew about audiobooks as I have listened to several. But I was introduced to the concept of it being a career path. And let me tell you, I was intrigued. Anyway, we’ll talk more about that another day. We’ll say that that was my first introduction into the professional book world. In an attempt to network and become better at my craft I did the next logical step, I joined TikTok. I know, bold move but someone had to do it. I was unprepared for the world of TikTok and accordingly the world of BookTok. I have “met” so many wonderful, successful and encouraging people via TikTok. I still have no idea what I am doing and you can absolutely tell that if you ever look up my TikTok videos. However, there are a lot of people out there that do a better job disguising it than me. (Impostor Syndrome is real folks.) In the particular case of this post they introduced me to the world of NaNoWriMo.
What is NaNoWriMo, you ask? No idea! But I’m about to find out and maybe you can learn with me. So according to the website, https://nanowrimo.org/, “NaNoWriMo is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that believes in the transformational power of creativity. We provide the structure, community, and encouragement to help people find their voices, achieve creative goals, and build new worlds—on and off the page.” Again, what does that mean? Again, I have no clue. So, as I understand it, every November is NaNoWriMo. You can sign up, join and have a community of people cheering you on and helping motivate you to reach your goal. So what is the goal, I believe it is to write 50,000 words in a month. Well, I did the math and that is only 1,666.66666666666666666666666… ok, 1, 667 words a day. Well, I’ve already written 500 words writing gibberish on this blog post so how bad can it really be? Well, I anticipate it being pretty tricky, for several reasons. 1, I’ve never written a book and I haven’t written a story in about 20 years. (Shhh, I’m not old enough for that to be possible.) 2, people sign up every year and don’t succeed and they are more qualified than I am. 3, I have no clue what I’m going to write about. My dreams? (Like literal dreams, the crazy things that pop into my brain when I’m unconscious.) Ok, I’m sure there are more reasons but that’s not why we’re here. (I honestly, I don’t know why we’re here.) So, if this is so hard, why on earth am I signing up? Well, again, several reasons. 1, someone accidentally called me an author once and I really liked the title. 2, even if I don’t meet the 50,000 word goal, I still did better than nothing and I consider that a success. (PS. That success works for you too. If you decide to join and don’t make the 50,000 word goal you are still a winner. You tried, you did more than you would have otherwise and you put yourself out there. That’s a winner in my book.) And 3, everybody’s doing it, so why shouldn’t I? I mean usually I’m not one for peer pressure but this one seems to be working on me.
So, I invite you to join me on my journey for NaNoWriMo for the first time. It starts November 1st. My user name is Cat_Hipps. Look me up. If you’re participating, let me know and we can cheer each other on together. I’m excited and you should be too. So until next time, much love! - Cat
Total Word Count: 814 ;) Half-way there!!