If you have writers in your circle of friends, you may know that during the month of November it can suddenly become anxiously quiet around their person. They don't want to meet up anymore, they're slow to respond to your messages and when they post something on social media it's about that strange word 'NaNoWriMo'.

First of all: it's not because of you. They still love you as much as ever, they haven't forgotten you, nor are they trying to be rude on purpose. The only issue is that they are participating in National Novel Writing Month. 

Every November, thousands of writing enthusiasts from all over the world challenge themselves to write 50,000 words in 30 days. Yes, you read it correctly: 50,000 words. That works out to an average of 1,667 words per day. Authors who live by writing might shake such a number out of their sleeves in no time on a daily basis, but for most people participating in NaNoWriMo, I fear that is not the case.

You may be thinking: why participate in something so horrible? Well, maybe we writers like to torment ourselves. Why else would we have chosen writing as a hobby? There are plenty of other leisure activities that are less stressful 😉.

I myself first heard about NaNoWriMo in 2017. That knowledge came at the right time, so I decided to join right away. This resulted in the first draft of what would later become my thriller debut "Fatal Choices. It turned out to be quite a challenge to reach those 1,667 words every day, but fortunately I had a week off from work in between, so I was able to build up a buffer for the days when I had less time. I also deliberately set my alarm a little earlier, to have something written before I had to go to work. When I got home in the evening, I continued typing until I had reached my goal. It was hard, but it was also satisfying. I finished 4 days before the deadline.

In 2019, I participated again, but I fell behind from day 1. In the end, I only managed to reach that 50,000 words on the very last day of the month. What a horror. I really needed to recover for a while, which is why I only wrote 5,000 words in December after that. Still, this November project ended up being my second book "Memory Game.

Because of my experiences last year, I honestly looked forward to it quite a bit this year. I was afraid that things would be the same as they were in 2019, that every day would be a great struggle and that I would constantly be facing backlogs. Fortunately, nothing could be further from the truth. Thanks in part to the encouragement of fellow NaNo'ers, I am several days ahead of schedule at the time of writing (- I hope to pass the 40,000 word mark today). November 1 was on a Sunday this year, which allowed me to write a little more than strictly necessary on Day 1. I continued to build on that lead in subsequent weekends.

Still, I really have to sit down for it. It's not like I reach those 1,667 words effortlessly every day. There were days when I didn't close my laptop until around 10 p.m. (I'm not an evening person, normally I go to bed around that time to do some more reading).

But if it's so terrible, why do I keep participating? It may sound crazy, but sometimes you just need a stick to help you move forward. November for me is the one month a year where I really make writing a priority. Where I push myself to the limit and move forward with my story in leaps and bounds.

I could do that any month of the year, but in November I'm sure there are thousands of like-minded people who are going through the same hardships as I am. Shared sorrow is half sorrow, right?

So how about it: will you join us next November?

Author: Nina Verheij