(Sarah Read is an author, editor, yarn artist, and pen/paper/ink addict. You can find more about her at her website and on Twitter. And check out her latest book, Out of Water, now available where books are sold!)
If you’re reading this, you survived NaNoWriMo! And since I’m writing it, I suppose I did, too. I did not win this year, but I didn’t think I would. What I did do is write about 30k words, which I certainly would not have done if I hadn’t given myself the extra productivity nudge that NaNoWriMo provides. I’m happy with that!
My book is still far from done, but progress is progress and momentum begets momentum, and despite the fact that I spent most of my spare time on that project this past month, I’m excited to keep moving forward with it and keep devoting time to this manuscript till it’s a full draft. Usually I’m sick of a project by the end of November, but I’m ready to NaNo my way through December as well. And probably January. This is going to be a long book.
The best part of NaNoWriMo this year was getting to see some writing friends in person again. I attended five group write-ins this month, and a huge chunk of my progress is a result of that revelry. Working quietly in a room with other writers, with chat breaks and snacks and prizes, is the perfect blend of friendship and accountability to keep the words flowing.
Another highlight, of course, is getting to use my pens and paper. I emptied eight pens and made good progress emptying another three that were all eyedropper pens (my Omas will never empty. I’m convinced). I rotated a new pen for each writing sprint or session, so they all got equal use. As I emptied them, I added them to my to-be-cleaned pile, which was already WAY out of hand. Now I have a mountain of pen cleaning to do. Maybe December should always be NaPeCleMo. I am now left with only five pens inked, which is a very low number, for me! I’m going to try and empty the rest before I ink any more…
The last highlight of the month for me was my now traditional holiday weekend writing escape. The hardest part of writing is finding the time, space, and silence to actually do it. I now make a point of claiming all three by running away to a quiet hotel by myself for a long weekend where I can devote all my time to writing for those days. It became necessary last year when I was home-schooling my kids through the pandemic and hadn’t had time to write for a number of important deadlines. This year hasn’t been any easier, turns out. My youngest was home in quarantine most of the month, so daylight hours were spent with him and night hours had to be for my own grad school homework, leaving no more hours for writing. More than a third of my writing for the month happened at the lake.
My NaNo kit worked well for me this year. The pens I used were all excellent. I thought for a long time about which one I enjoyed writing with the most this month, but it was impossible to choose. Each one was the best while I was using it. I did realize that my planning notebook for this project, the FIeld Notes Dime Novel Edition, will be a bit too small to contain all of the notes for this book, so I’ll have to add an additional volume. It’s not ideal, as it will mean carrying an extra notebook around, but it does mean I’ll get to use up another fun notebook from my stash.
And speaking of carrying around, my writing kit has now been effectively wrangled by a new bag, the Tom Bihn Parental Unit. I resisted this bag for a long time, as it’s marketed as a diaper bag and my kids are out of diapers, but when they announced that this recent update might be the last run of it for a while, I decided to cave. I’m so glad I did. This is the perfect writing bag. I won’t launch into a full review here, especially as I’m not sure if/when it will be available again, but it is now my favorite bag that I own, and I do not say that lightly.
I hope your NaNoWriMo was successful by any measure, even if not by words. Remember that you get to decide your own definition of success when it comes to art. Whether you participated or not, I hope you got to spend some quality time with your writing tools this month.
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