Happy Wednesday! The Insecure Writers’ Group is a group of writers offering motivation and encouragement to all those taking on the challenges of writing. Every month the ISWG sponsors a blog hop where writers can blog about a topic related to overcoming obstacles and exploring various aspects of the writing journey. If you’d like to participate in a future hop you can join here. It’s always a great experience, and I recommend it to anyone who is interested in writing and sharing with other writers. Every month there is an optional discussion question, and this month the question is the following:
November 2 question – November is National Novel Writing Month. Have you ever participated? If not, why not?
I have heard a lot about National Novel Writing Month, and always been interested in it. I think it’s a really cool idea, and really admire those who take part and write some amazing things during this month! However, to be honest, I have never participated.
If you think it’s so great, why haven’t you participated, you might ask? That is a good question.
Well the answer is because I think I would be so stressed about having to write a certain amount every day, that I would find myself totally unable to think and ultimately end up writing absolutely nothing at all. Which is kind of sad, but true. I have seen the amount of prep work that many people put into the previous months preparing for November, and I don’t feel that I would ever reach this level of preparation. Maybe one day though, I will give it a try.
I’m curious to know your thoughts. Have you ever participated in National Novel Writing Month? If so, what did you think about it? Did you do a lot of prep work in advance, or just kind of wing it?
Wishing you happy writing!!
-Winter
Winter Betancourt 
I had a go, for the first time at the July ‘camp’. I think it’s basically the same as November but perhaps with a little less support. I’m not sure.
I did enjoy the process. Didn’t beat myself up if I didn’t write enough, but I wrote more than I would have. I was hoping to do November but it has been so busy so far.
As to prep, i wouldn’t worry about how others do it. I used July to think about my characters, and just start writing back stories for them. To just explore them. It is amazing, how much I got to know them as I started writing about them. I think I ran out of steam towards the end of the month but I still have stuff that I can work with when I next have a window. You don’t need to publish anything apart from the number of words you do. But you can add buddies who might support each other.
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Oh wow, that sounds really great. You’ve convinced me to try next opportunity I have a block of time 😁How awesome that you got to know your characters and have so much good planning done. I hope you have more time soon to keep working on it!!
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