IWSG: National Novel Writing Month

Welcome to November! It's hard to believe another month has come and gone, isn't it? That means it's time for another Insecure Writer's Support Group post. Learn more about the IWSG on their website and Facebook page. Our hosts this month are Diedre Knight, Douglas Thomas Greening, Nick Wilford, and Diane Burton.

Our question for November is about the most famous writing event associated with this month: National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). Have you ever participated? If not, why not?

 

I've done NaNoWriMo at least twice, once in 2007 (when my son was still a baby), and another time a few years later, possibly 2010. I managed to "win" both times by reaching 50,000 words, though neither project was ever completed. While NaNoWriMo definitely stretches my writing muscles, I wasn't satisfied with the quality of my writing. (It might work better for me if I was more of a plotter and had a better sense of what I wanted to put down.) I'm not planning to participate this year for two reasons: I currently have several other projects pending and need to complete them before starting something new (unless I get distracted by an anthology I want to submit work to, even though one of my current projects is for an anthology), and I unfortunately don't have enough daily writing time to make finishing a possibility. (I typically have about half an hour to an hour in the evening, which is barely enough time for me to write 500 words, let alone 1,667.) Good luck to everyone who's participating, though!

How do you feel about NaNoWriMo? Are you participating this year? Feel free to discuss it in the comments.