A COVID-19 NaNoWriMo to Remember!

Welcome back, my lovely Procrastiwrimos! I feel like I was just daily vlogging for July Camp NaNoWriMo, and here I am back again and ready to write.

In true pantser fashion, I have not posted in October with outline ideas or other prep. For whatever reason, what works for me is just sitting down and starting to write. So here I am on National Novel Writing Month Day 1, with a word count of 0 and all of the hopefulness in the world.

I am a huge believer in letting NaNoWriMo be whatever you need it to be.

NaNoWriMo rules I am following this year:

• Write a novel (this year, a middle grade urban fantasy!)
• 50,000 word goal
• Start on November 1st and end on the 30th.

NaNoWriMo rules I will not be following:

• Start a new project (I am continuing my long-time novel draft in progress)
• No editing!! (I am usually a big believer in not letting editing slow you down. But because middle grade books are so short and this is already a work in progress, I will end up writing 30,000 in new words, reaching the end of the manuscript, and going back to revise 20,000 words of content for the rest of the month.)

I’ve heard of authors using NaNo to draft, edit, or even to research or free write for their book. It is so easy to simply NOT write, so any kind of writing deserves a celebration.

Back in April, I did StayHomeRhymeMo, where I wrote daily poems about COVID-19. In July Camp NaNoWriMo, I worked on my novel draft (didn’t win Camp NaNo) and posted daily haiku. This November, I’ll be creating daily updates on my progress as I (hopefully!) reach the end of my book’s manuscript. So many people ask me how to create something the length of a novel, stick with it, and not run out of things to say. So this November, I’ll be talking about the daily struggles that come up in my writing, crazy sentences I’ve written, and the unexpected gems I discover along the way of this Procrastiwriter’s journey.

For me, COVID-19 means no in-person NaNoWriMo events or meet-ups this year. If you are writing this month, how has COVID impacted your work? Is it easier or harder to write? Do you find that the state of the world affects the things you write about?

Stay safe and write on! Here’s to a month that I am determined will be the highlight of 2020.