Why I Don’t Participate In NaNoWriMo

Wait! Don’t get me wrong. I have nothing against NaNoWriMo. In fact I support it and bristle to know there are NaNo-snobs out there talking down on the event! I also encourage anyone planning to participate to read this article on how to tackle the famous National Novel Writing Month.

With November now here, writers all around me are talking about the event—participating, not participating—and it had me thinking about where I fall in that spectrum. The way some writers have spoken to me about NaNo also shows they expect that naturally, I’m participating too.

1.

I’ve never done NaNoWriMo. It’s probably because I haven’t had a project at the time it was going on. Looking back, I believe I first learned about NaNo in 2021. By November 2021, I was revising my regency novel with the former agent. By November 2022, I’d just finished ADOBS and was querying it. And now, November 2023, I’m revising a manuscript. So although the energy was especially infectious last NaNo, I didn’t have any projects to join in on the event with.

2.

I’m not ruling NaNo out and thinking I’ll never join in. I suspect that in the future, if a project I’m working on coincides with the writing month, it’ll be fun to hop on. I’m not quite a competitive person because I actively train myself not to be—I’ve noticed competitive situations can sometimes get messy, that’s why—but when I do get into competitions, my goal is to smash it lol! So I think it’ll be fun!

3.

When I’m loving a project, I write… really fast. So while I’ve seen that NaNo is a writing motivator, I don’t quite need it to write. So I won’t be, like, putting off a project and waiting for November because then I’ll be inspired. Maybe if I find myself struggling with a project I can do that. Really, the NaNo energy online is powerful and it seriously makes you want to be a part of it!

So these are reasons I haven’t done NaNo. I haven’t had a project coincide with the timing, and I haven’t yet felt like I needed a writing event to get words down.

Have you done NaNoWriMo—how has it been? If not, do you think you might?

My December TBR!