NaNoWriMo Victories Are Word Counts Greater Than Zero
Treasured NaNoWriMo Participant, was your ending November word count greater than your starting word count on November 1?
Despite the US political news?
Despite relatives visiting for the US Thanksgiving holiday?
Despite the banter of your inner critic telling you time would be better spent bathing the cat?
Then to us, the editors of the Medium NaNoWriMo publication, you’ve succeeded.
Last weekend I was driving with my daughter, age 12, complaining I needed “800 more words” for that day’s goal.
She responded, with all the wisdom of her youth, “Mommy, you love writing, why do you talk about this like it’s a punishment?”
I need to find a place between beating myself up for what I haven’t done and celebrating what I have. Perhaps you can relate?
So if your word count for November is greater than zero, we salute you.
This is success.
I feel that so much more is possible after taking on the November challenge, that there is magic to participating, regardless of the win. There are so many people in the world who say, “I want to write a novel, someday,” and NaNo transforms that someday into now.
Now what?
NaNoWriMo calls January and February the “Now What?” months. Past resources have focused on editing, community support, and publishing options. So, what’s next for our community here on Medium? We ask for your direction on what comes by highlighting potential options below that you would like to take part in, and/or by responding to this post with further feedback and ideas.
- Facilitate community feedback for your drafts. / Publicly or privately?
- Feature posts and resources for editing.
- Feature posts and resources for publishing.
- Something else — leave us a response with your ideas.
The end of a novel wouldn’t be complete without acknowledgements and neither would this NaNoWriMo!
I’m the author of this post, only because Shawn White and I can’t co-author a post. Shawn’s enthusiasm, energy, and passion for NaNoWriMo and writing were pivotal in making this pub a success this year.
Next, I express our gratitude to our publication prompt writers — along with their own word count, they also wrote a prompt for the publication this year, to inspire and further our writing. Thank you to Tom Farr, elizabeth tobey, Josh Gauthier, Zac Chapepa 💫, and Mignon Fogarty (Grammar Girl).
Our publication would have been droll and lifeless without the regular contributions of those writers who shared their day to day experience of participating — Jessica Cross, Matt Saccaro, Aura Wilming, Nicole Willson, Anna Now, Zac Chapepa, Matt Brady.
Our live draft posters — wow! I am in awe of you who post your novel writing during the month, either in whole or in part, and look forward to reading your novels now that November is over! Renée S, Alex Rowe, Daniel Holliday, J.R. Delaney, hala saleh, Anna Now, Ben Werdmuller, martin.strange, Josh Gauthier, Miles Harris, Jenna.
In our Flight Manual, these contributors shared their writing tips and tricks. Thank you! I plan to re-reading your posts in January when I start editing in earnest! W. W. Norton, Kelly Abbott, Matthew BJ Delaney, Lauren Sapala, Gray Miller, Mariah L. Eppes.
If I omitted you from the above list my apologies; it was an oversight, not intentional. ❤
The enthusiastic Todd Brison shared his inspirational NaNoWriMo videos on Medium and made my class of middle school students feel like writing a novel was possible. They loved the shout out! Thank you!
Our appreciation to the staff and volunteers of National Novel Writing Month; this event wouldn’t exist without you!
And … you! Whether you were an actively reading, responding, and recommending the posts in the publication this year, know that every action was appreciated. Our community publication grew by 1,400 followers this month, and that’s because of all of you.
With gratitude,
