National Novel Writing Month

We've not quite reached the end of November, aka National Novelling Month, but tomorrow is the official day for validating word counts and winning.

And I have a confession to make.

I will not have completed my NaNo.

Not for a lack of trying, not because I gave up - but simply because I got bored. However, I've learned a few things from this -

1. Writing every day feels good. Whether it's 100 words or 7,000 words, it still feels good to write every day.
2. Pressure is good, but also bad. Pressuring yourself too much to write a certain amount every day isn't productive - I know when I put the pressure on myself purposefully it helps but when I feel like other people are handing me deadlines I'm actually more inclined to procrastinate. But to have that word count to hit every day and reach it feels like a lovely small achievement to have.
3. I wrote a lot more this year than previous years. For once I managed to get past 12k words, and reached 20k words. For most of the time I was ahead, which felt really good, and when I took a break of a few days it didn't matter, because I knew I could easily catch up and surpass the word goal I was supposed to be on. This let me know that I am actually very productive.
4. Spewing out writing is bad. The folks over at NaNo argue that it doesn't matter what you write - it matters how much you write. And they also argue it's good to get it down on paper. Maybe so, and yes it does feel sort of good knowing that stashed away on my PC I have 20k words of the beginning of a novel. But I picked an idea I didn't really care about, which was probably something that factored into why my writing this time around felt so flabby. I certainly daren't go back to read it and I won't be editing it - because it also feels terrible knowing that I wrote a lot, but it's all... crap. It's probably the most boring thing you could ever read.
5. NaNo has pros and cons. As my concluding point I'll say obviously NaNo produces good results and bad ones. While I like that it encourages me to write every day, it also encourages me to write badly. I like that it frees me of forcing myself to write absolutely perfectly the first time, which removes a lot of pressure, but I hate that this in turn makes me type out utter pulp.

I think in the near future I'll possibly attempt it again - if I ever find the time and motivation. It's something I'd love to achieve, but for the most part I can say if I ever give up again it won't really be giving up - it's simply because my interest has waned. The one thing I definitely found out is that NaNo is actually pretty boring, and perhaps that's something I have to consider when sticking with an idea for 80k + words.