What Makes NaNo NaNo?
Before November ends, one more NaNoWriMo post.
What makes NaNo special?
Is it that writing so many words in so few days forces me to turn off my editor for a while? Yes.
Is it that I have 50,000 words today that I didn’t have on October 31, and without NaNo I might only have 20,000? Yes.
Is it that the site’s “Update Word Count” feature appeals to my need to measure progress? Yes.
Is it that I loved to share a celebratory glass of Prosecco with my students tonight? Yes.
But there’s something more.
NaNo provides a container. The specified word count plus the specified time frame equals a safe space to create. Just enough structure to allow me to leave structure behind.
Prosecco is always good. But the container makes all the difference.
And now, the editing begins.
1 Comment
wholly jeanne
containers – yes, they do make all the difference. i’m reading right now about studies showing that too many choices overwhelm and shut us down. (like we didn’t already know that, right?) containers are definitely our friends. and next year will be a container. and that big, big, big sheet of paper is a container. and lunch hour is a container. xo