With the first of November comes National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) and my annual frenzy of creativity. Each November, I make at least a passing attempt to write a 50,000 word novel in the course of thirty days. This will mark my eleventh(!) year of getting in the NaNo spirit, and though more of my attempts have fizzled than flourished, I’ve still managed to write two novels through this crazy feat.

I’ve been debating whether or not I would participate in NaNo this year; it feels like I should be directing the energy toward more of the hard work I’ve been doing this year. I haven’t seen the progress I’m wanting and anything that pulls attention from that work feels like dalliance, a distraction, a waste of time. But I also can’t imagine truly swearing off everything that I enjoy doing in pursuit of that hard work. 

I’ve paired back a lot of my obligations this month: I’ve dropped games that I was signed up for, purposefully kept my calendar open, and have graciously declined invitations to things I would really like to do. I wanted to give myself some breathing room to do only a few concerted things, including that tough work I have to do. And in the between times there are moments for fun and creativity; there are moments for writing.

There’s something magnetic about NaNoWriMo, about doing something every day and seeing work pile up. I remember the years that I cleared the 50,000 word mark and though I was exhausted and though I couldn’t wait for a break from the crunch, I felt exhilarated.

When you do creative work for a living, a part of the magic can go out of creativity. I design things every day and a part of me doesn’t feel like I have bandwidth to do more creative work outside of that. NaNoWriMo provides a structured way to push beyond my own self-imposed limitations and show myself that I can still flex at any time when I put my mind to it. And I really feel like I need to flex right now. 

If you want to flex with me, add me as a buddy over at my NaNo Participant Page and check out the novel bits I threw together this morning. I didn’t prep at all, so we’re going to see where this goes. But at least I’m flexing.