I wrote, in the past, why I decided to do Nanowrimo last year, but it also taught me things about myself. As time has passed, I have realized it taught me more that the initial realizations.

For me, confirmations have always been the best for me to know I can do something or that I’ve done something right. Often, I can do this for myself because I will build confidence due to research. With Nano I went in almost blind. I only had a week to prep. I was taking in a lot of information in a short period, mostly alone researching, but also talking to veterans of the event.

Here I sit, months later, and I realize Nano taught me if I can focus I really can accomplish many things. I have always tried, but my life is often crazy busy, to type here and there, but all I can think was everything seemed to work out for me to get 2019 Nano done.

I am still pretty happy with myself for pushing myself. I work well under pressure and this was an entire event I expected to be nothing but pressure. I started off doing it roughly, pushing and pushing, but ultimately and very quickly I didn’t. I would relax and tell myself that it was okay, something is better than nothing.

Below is all the advice I can share on my experience, I hope it helps someone.

Advice to take away:

1. Don’t give up
2. Some words is better than no words
3. Ignore the community factor if it’s hindering your progress. This is a self-challenge, not a challenge against others.
4. 50,000 words breaks down easier than you think, just breathe, and you can do it
5. Self-care is important, don’t push yourself to hit the goal.
6. If you don’t hit the goal to ‘win’, reflect upon what you accomplished, and remember that was so much more than you started with.

Follow my blogging from last year’s Nanowrimo. Great to see the word count progress. Check out these links in order for a better idea of how little or how much you can do and still ‘win’.

• Week 1
• Week 2
• Week 3
• Week 4 – Winner