Preptober 2023
For the past seventeen years, I’ve taken on a challenge every November known as NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). With sixteen wins under my belt, I’ve experienced the exhilaration (and stress!) of writing a 50,000-word novel in just thirty days.
NaNoWriMo is an international challenge tasking writers with completing a 50,000-word novel in one month. While it may sound daunting, it’s an incredible opportunity to push creative boundaries. It forces me into a writing routine, which is a valuable skill for any author.
NaNoWriMo also offers strong community support. When I did the challenge on my own for those first few years, reaching my daily word count was like pulling teeth. I was often 10,000 words behind on the last day, and I would spend all day with my butt in my chair, desperately trying to catch up in time. Once I started participating in the online forums, engaging with fellow writers, and attending local events, the support and camaraderie turned into a huge motivator, and reaching 50,000 words became easier. It’s also how I became a Minion (unofficial helper) for the Detroit region, and, eventually, a Municipal Liaison—one of the many official volunteer coordinators.
One of the things I had a hard time with was pushing my perfectionism aside. NaNoWriMo isn’t about perfect writing; it’s about quantity over quality. It’s about allowing yourself to write badly, knowing you can edit later. As a Pantser—someone who writes “by the seat of their pants,” so to speak—you’d think that part would’ve been easy for me, but it really wasn’t. My perfectionism wouldn’t allow for it. But now, I’m used to it. Unfortunately, it makes my first drafts messier than I’d like, but that’s what revision and edits are for during the rest of the year!
Crossing the 50,000-word finish line is a tremendous achievement. And as a perfectionist, it was a difficult conclusion to come to when I made the decision, during my fifth year, to set NaNo aside in favor of editing a previous novel to be published. Unfortunately, I didn’t end up publishing until ten years later, but that’s a story for another day. Though I was discouraged for falling short that year, the real victory was taking on the challenge to begin with and growing as a writer.
Writers have affectionately dubbed October as “Preptober,” as they get themselves in order before the event begins. October is for getting organized (determining goals, making checklists, getting notes ready, etc.), preparing the book (plotting, outlining, choosing playlists, etc.), and preparing ourselves (snacks, beverages, rewards, accountability, etc.).
As a Pantser, there’s not much preparing needed for my project. I can’t make a story outline to save my life and usually just write whatever comes to mind. My preparing instead consists of figuring out what reward I want for reaching each 10,000-word milestone (usually, it means driving across the border to Canada for Cadbury Crunchie bars—my favorite Canadian chocolate bar) and securing myself the latest Assassin’s Creed video game for my 50,000-word milestone (which almost always comes out in October or the beginning of November).
This year, however, my Preptober will be similar to last year’s: creating the reverse outline of Project Elementals 3, also known as the second part of my 2013/2017 NaNo novels, to figure out how much is still useable. I made so many changes in The Elemental’s Guardian, and I’m currently still making huge changes to Project Elementals 2. It’s going to be messy. But I’m up for the challenge.
Also on my Preptober list is helping my son with his second NaNoWriMo project through their Young Writers Program. He made a Pokemon fanfic last year, and he blew his 300-word goal out of the water by writing 906 words! Now that he’s learning what fiction/non-fiction/settings/characters/plot/etc. is at school, I want to help him plan out this next story—even though I’m a Pantser. We’ll see how that goes!
NaNoWriMo has been an incredible part of my writing journey for seventeen years, and I can’t wait for this eighteenth year to begin. Here’s to my seventeenth win!
Raine