Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Do NaNoWriMo Differently This Year

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  1. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Let’s begin the Fight
  2. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Rejection – The Ugly Word
  3. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Learning to Juggle
  4. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: To Dump or not to Dump
  5. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Keep the Faith
  6. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Finding Your Identity
  7. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Just for the love of it
  8. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: 5 Step plan for success
  9. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: The Planning Issue
  10. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: The Crossroads
  11. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: The Overwhelming Effect
  12. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: The Waiting Game
  13. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Reflection 2013
  14. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: New Year New Challenges
  15. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Am I a real Writer?
  16. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Taking The Next Step
  17. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Submission Phobia
  18. Setting Self Doubt On Fire: How To Get Ideas
  19. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Dealing with Fear
  20. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: The Only Guarantee
  21. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: The Doubts of others
  22. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Let those positives shine
  23. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: First Draft Blues
  24. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: The Time-wasting issue
  25. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Embrace the bad ideas
  26. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Writer or Author?
  27. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Negative Feedback; the double slap
  28. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Pat yourself on the back
  29. Setting Self Doubt On Fire: The Deflated Eureka Moment
  30. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: The doomed quest for perfection
  31. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Writing Group fears
  32. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: The Horror Tree Crew tackle Mr Self Doubt
  33. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: The Read aloud challenge
  34. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Find your inner belief
  35. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: NaNoWriMo and Self-Doubt
  36. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: We are NaNoWriMo winners
  37. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: New Year’s Resolutions for Writers
  38. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: The benefits of organizing
  39. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: The Editing Strain
  40. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: The Writing Group Experience
  41. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Dealing with second stage fears
  42. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Reading aloud to an audience
  43. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: The Importance of perseverance
  44. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Self-Doubt or Gut Feeling
  45. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Get ready for NaNoEdMo
  46. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: The Benefits of Writing Goals
  47. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Rejection Gets Better
  48. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Writers, take care of yourself!
  49. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: How to Boost Your Self-Confidence
  50. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Why You Should Go to a Writing Festival
  51. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Help! A Publisher has Dropped Me
  52. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: The Setting Self Doubt on Fire Challenge
  53. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: How to Prepare for a Book Reading Event
  54. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: It’s NaNoWriMo and NaNoEdMo Time
  55. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Help! I Didn’t Reach My NaNo Goal
  56. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Let’s Beat Self-Doubt in 2017
  57. WIHM: Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Female Horror Writer and Proud
  58. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Don’t Let Self-Doubt Make You Miss Deadlines
  59. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Hey! Where’s My Book Reading Audience
  60. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: 5 Tips on How to Ignore the Negative Voices
  61. Video Refresh: Rejection – The Ugly Word
  62. Video Refresh: Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Learning to Juggle
  63. Video Refresh: To Dump or not to Dump
  64. Video Refresh: Keep The Faith
  65. Video Refresh: Finding Your Identity
  66. Video Refresh: 5 Step plan for success
  67. Video Refresh: The Planning Issue
  68. Video Refresh: The Crossroads
  69. Video Refresh: The Overwhelming Effect
  70. Video Refresh: The Waiting Game
  71. Video Refresh: Am I A Real Writer?
  72. Video Refresh: Taking The Next Step
  73. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Let’s Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway in 2019
  74. Video Refresh: Submission Phobia
  75. Video Refresh: Dealing With Fear
  76. WIHM: Setting Self Doubt on Fire: The Female Horror Author Reading Challenge
  77. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Writer or Author? Video Refresh
  78. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Beat the Fear of Self-Publishing
  79. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Do NaNoWriMo Differently This Year
  80. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: How Can Online Groups Help Writers?
  81. Setting Self-Doubt on Fire – AuthorTube – Learn How to Describe Emotion
  82. Setting Self-Doubt on Fire: How to Set Realistic Goals for NaNoWriMo

Hi everyone, I’m back with some more self-doubt fighting-advice. It’s October, and you know what that means—no, I’m not talking about my birthday. October is the month before NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month).

 

Yes, it’s nearly NaNo time already—I can’t believe it. For those who don’t know, NaNoWriMo is where writers from around the world pledge to write 50,000 words of their novel in November. It’s a great way to motivate you to start writing your novel.

 

I had planned to do NaNoWriMo again this year—it would be my first attempt since 2014—but due to ill health, trying to write 50,000 words in a month would put too much pressure on my struggling brain.

 

But I still wanted to take part in NaNo, so this got me thinking. Why do I have to aim to write 50,000 words? Yes, that is the purpose of NaNo, but it wouldn’t be the first time I’ve done it differently. I have done NaNoEdMo (National Novel Editing Month) instead of NaNoWriMo, and instead of working on a novel, I worked on a novella and some short stories.

 

So I decided to do NaNoWriMo differently. Instead of aiming to write 50,000 words, I plan to write 10,000 words of a novella, but even if I don’t reach that goal, I still plan to celebrate any achievement I make, see my ‘My NaNoWriMo 2019 Goal’ post to find out more.

 

For many of you, the challenge of writing 50,000 words in a month is too much for you to attempt. It could be because of your health, lack of time, responsibilities or fear. And trying NaNo will do nothing but add extra stress to an already stressful life. So you decide not to take part at all.

 

Well, this isn’t the only option. If you still want to take part in the NaNo fun, there is no reason why you can’t tweak it to make it more suitable for you. You could reduce the word count (as I am doing), do NaNoEdMo instead if you have a novel to edit rather than to write or write something other than a novel, such as a short story collection or a novella. The choice is yours. So instead of missing out this year, do NaNo differently instead and join the fun. And if you don’t reach your goal, don’t beat yourself up, be proud of the work you have done so far.

 

If you decide to do NaNo, then read my other NaNo posts for more tips and advice:

 

 

And, if you do decide to take part in NaNo, I have created a Facebook group called NaNoWriMo for Self-Doubters. This group is for writers who suffer from self-doubt but want to take part in NaNo or anyone doing NaNo differently. So, if that’s you, then do join please join the group and let’s support each other.

 

That’s all I have for you today.

 

‘It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.’—Confucius

 

 

 

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1 Response

  1. Ray Daley says:
    January 23, 2020 at 4:48 pm

    One of the best ways to approach Nano or Camp Nano is to rebel. Sure write 50,000 words. But don’t write a novel, any idiot can write a novel! Write a bunch of flash & longer fic stories, so you can have material to submit later in the year.