R.I.P. NaNoWriMo. I never did know you. Every November when you came around, I thought, “Write a novel in one month—are you crazy?” And now you’re gone.
For those who don’t know, NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month, involved a grinding daily word-count toward a 50,000-word manuscript in one month.
I admired the people who pulled it off. I was too chicken.
Then I created an alternative: LoWriMo (Low-pressure Writers Month), a private Facebook group.
I invited writers I knew and five responded: one who’d published several novels, a journalist shifting to fiction, a prolific blogger dabbling in historical fiction, a graduate student exploring sci-fi, and a budding children’s author. An interesting mix.
The participants in LoWriMo were welcome to work on any writing project of their choice, i.e.: brainstorming, researching, plot development, actually creating a draft, or occasionally waving hello. My job was to post dumb jokes and keep an eye on the unruly mob (very nice people.)
The weeks rolled by, and our small number kept the group interactive without bogging down. It was fun–and maybe that’s why, to my surprise, I pulled off a 30,000-word first-draft.
So, if you want company while you muck your way through writing (or the business of writing), consider creating your own little LoWriMo.
And start collecting your dumb jokes.