Pfft, Who Cares About the Numbers (Or Why the NaNoWriMo Numbers Don't Always Matter)

With one day left in NaNoWriMo, I’ll admit that I made it barely over 15k words this year (well below my normal). Yes, it sucks and I could throw you all the excuses and let you juggle them. Between school responsibilities, craft shows, and family matters not one of you would blame me. That does not matter. I can even say that finishing doesn’t always matter. Though some women may beg to differ.

Here are five reasons why:

Habit Forming.
 If you learn nothing from NaNoWriMo, but one thing, this is the one thing you should learn: Writing must become habitual to become not only better, but hopefully even professional. The 50k in a month sets one goal for the month and then daily goals of approximately 1667 words per day. This is the perfect tool to make writing habitual since studies show that it takes 30 days to create a habit. If you’re serious about writing, obviously you need to write every day to help improve it and NaNoWriMo helps you form that habit.

Creating Contacts.
As writers, we may not be alone, but we definitely feel it some days. During November we get the chance to join weekly writing groups (which sometimes expand to year round), make friends over the message board, and find people we trust to either write with or proof read our work. Sometimes these friends even end up with jobs or their own contacts that could further our writing goals. These contacts could not only help end our writing solitude, but help expand our professional ties as well.

The Deals.
Sure, some deals are only for the 50k winners, but some deals are for every one. You can discounts on software, self publishing, and even some chances for professional publishing that only participants can get. Admittedly, 25-50% self publishing and software  is really worth the work of NaNoWriMo.

The Challenge.
Sometimes we just need a challenge, but creating our own challenges are not always easy. Especially if we are alone in this challenge. With the NaNoWriMo challenge, we work with thousands of others which gives us more drive to meet the challenge. We know that other people are suffering and working and pushing forward like we are. This camaraderie is hard to find and once a year (or twice if you do Script Frenzy), we get to have it and rejoice in it.

The Resources.
The whole month of NaNoWriMo, we find writing prompts, a twitter feed full of writing sprints and mini-challenges, and famous authors giving us pep talks. These don’t go away suddenly after November ends. They don’t just delete the twitter account or remove all bits of pep talks. No, instead the twitter remains available to go on and re-use the mini-challenges that we missed during the month (since the twitter runs 24/7). And best of all, the pep talks get put into an archive that we have access to all year round.

Let’s face it, there’s plenty of different reasons that NaNoWriMo is good for us writers. You own reason might be something silly or even something much more serious, but in the long run, any reason is a good one to help better yourself and your writing.

Newest Blog Project

As many of you already know, I'm an English Major at Wayne State. This means I'm constantly reading and analyzing literary works. Coming close to the end of my English degree (hoping to graduate at the end of Winter 13 semester), I was thinking of starting a literary aspect to my blog.

Well, my Senior Seminar professor ended my debate: At least once a week I need to create a public blog post about our weekly readings. This should create an interesting series considering the seminar is on Children's literature. Here is the timeline we will be following:


Fairy Tales (Week 1)---> Beginnings: "Edutainment" in Print Culture (Weeks 2-4)---> American Children: Historical Figures (Weeks 5-7)---> Writers and Other Wild Things (Weeks 8-9)---> Sci-fi and Fantasy: Escapes and Dystopias (Weeks 10-13)

This is basic outline from my syllabus using the titles of each reading section. I hope you enjoy these next segments of the blog, because I will definitely enjoy writing them.

Paper, Paper, Paper

If you’re like me, you write on every piece of paper you find and generally lose gumption to type it up after the initial spurt of activity. Or you just write every down so you don’t forget anything or you have to do lists that just sit there. So this bring up the questions: Does creation stop after the story is over? Or does that piece of paper still have potential to be more? Can that potential to be more the push to actually type up your pieces in a timely manner?


No, yes, yes. At least, that’s the answers I’ve been finding lately. So here’s a fun list of things you can do, including some links on instructions:

1) Paper chain folding: This type of paper chain folding is usually called “Starburst paper folding”, because of the publicity it got when a mom made her daughter a prom dress from Starburst wrappers. In actuality it’s been around forever, originally done with gum wrappers. People mainly use it to make bracelets and other jewelry, however I’m in the process of using my Pen.io writings to make a picture frame and hope to make a box soon after. It’s fun, simple, quick, and if you have small paper, it works wonders. Be forewarned that it does not make quite as sturdy/neat looking chains as starburst wrappers do, but it just takes a bit of practice to find the best way of cleaning it up.

How to make a chain from Starburst Wrappers

2) Origami: This is pretty much a given, let’s face it. Cut the paper to the appropriate size and make that story into the best object that represents it. I am horrible at origami, but I guess this means I can get some practice.

Origami Fun

3) Paper strips: This is what I’m doing with my to do lists (if I finish them); I make paper strips and turn them into something, currently a bowl. Take a piece of paper, cut it into approximately 1 inch strips, fold into a third, and fold one last time, matching the side edges together. This should make a strip. An easier way to do this is by folding the paper in half and in half again. Either way, make sure to glue the edges together so that the strip is easy and firm to work with. Now comes the fun part: make something. Coasters, bowls, art pieces, etc. Anything you desire, just remember to seal the pieces afterwards and that unless you find yourself a really special sealer, don’t use any items for unwrapped foods that could damage the piece (i.e. These bowls are not soup bowls). If my directions are hard to follow, just google it and you’ll find plenty of directions. This is just how I learned it.

4) Envelopes: Don’t you dare ask me what an envelope is, you’re old enough to know. I’ve been doing this to old magazines that I haven’t gotten rid of for one reason or another.The easiest way to do this is to find an envelope the size you want, then carefully pull the pieces apart. Once the envelope is completely unglued, trance it onto the paper that you want to make an envelope (personally I glue two pieces of paper together so that I get an extra thick and sturdy envelope). Once trances out, cut it out and glue the proper pieces together. I also use blank envelope stickers to have a clear cut spot for addresses and since these come in various colours it can look really cool. If my directions are hard to follow, just google it and you’ll find plenty of directions. This is just how I learned it. As with the paper strips, if my directions are hard to follow, just google it and you’ll find plenty of directions. This is just how I learned it.


There are plenty of other things that can be done with the papers (like home made recycled paper, decoupage, etc), but these are some of the easiest and least messy things that can be done.

P.S. Glue sticks work best for most of the paper crafts listed.