7 Reflections From a Successful NaNoWriMo To Amplify Your Writing Habits

2024 Update: The NaNoWriMo Alternative: How To Create a Writing Habit Without Burning Out

We just wrapped up an expansive November and National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). 

I’m feeling proud, impressed, and grateful to be sitting here with a very shitty first draft of my next book. And, I captured some of my biggest insights and a-ha moments and am sharing them here with you.

First, here are some fun — and impressive numbers that sum up the last 30 days: 

• 269,679 total words tracked by the Unfussy Writing Community members

• 55,474 words for my new book

• 87 hours of working on my business (averaging 21 hours a week)

• 53 new Instagram followers, which is the biggest increase I’ve ever seen in 30 days

• 30 morning pages entries (I ended up doing this for half the month)

• 29 daily community writing sessions lasting 30 minutes each

• 25 walks

• 10 days of yoga

• 8 days of weight training

• 3 new 1:1 copywriting or coaching clients

• 2 new content writing retainer clients

• 2 hockey tournaments (13 games for the month)

• 1 new service launched

• 1 new course outlined and soft-launched

I saved the best number for last… 

17.23 total hours of book writing time (roughly 30 minutes a day).

INTUITIVE WRITING TIP: Writing a book doesn’t have to be a full-time, part-time, or even crazy, life-consuming job. When you’re laser-focused, you can create a substantial amount of work by carving out 30 minutes a day.

Now, of course, revision and editing time will likely be 5x that amount or more.

This is my fifth time doing NaNoWriMo. 

Here’s what I worked on in previous years up to this year: 

• 2017 — shitty first draft of Unfussy Life

• 2018 — shitty first edits of Unfussy Life

• 2019 — a 6-part blog series

• 2020 — finishing book edits for Unfussy Life (published in spring 2021)

• 2021 — super shitty first draft of my next book

I kept some notes on the book writing experience throughout November to reflect on later. 

Below are some excerpts from my daily journal entries...

Day 1

I think God wanted us to look at this NaNoWriMo like a fresh start — November 1 happening on a Monday couldn’t have been more perfect. Instead of eating any of the kids’ Halloween candy, I enjoyed some of my organic, dark, fair-trade chocolate and went to bed by 9:30 pm the night before.

Sunday night, I set out what I’d need to make breakfast and set my alarm for 5:30 am. Up just before my alarm to do some upper body weights, make my morning smoothie, do some quick morning pages and get the kids off to school. 

On this first day of writing, I felt inspired to jump right into the introduction of my new book, which I normally save for last. But I'll revisit it 100 times before publishing, so it was fine. 

On the home front, our old dog, Roland needs a vet. Yesterday, we noticed a big lump on his side. It’s as if it came out of nowhere.

J had hockey practice today, so I brought my laptop to the rink and did some work to get ahead for day two.

2,936 words

Day 2

Woke up around 4 am today (not on purpose) with an itchy throat and runny nose. Allergies! WTF?! This being my first fall living in Florida, it was bound to happen. I think it was because I slept with the window open and someone was burning something nearby. I got up and worked out with the resistance bands and did my morning routine. 

I've been focused on visibility on social media lately, which up until November 1 had been the first business-related thing I did each day. Realizing this isn’t the best habit now, I’ll move it to second place so I can do book writing first. 

Today’s writing was a compilation of two older blog posts — put them in, rearranged, and already realized some stuff is out of place, so I started a scratch pile for the book which I’ll revisit closer to November 30.

2,303 words

Day 3

Allergies totally kicked my ass yesterday. Sleeping with my mouth open since I couldn’t breathe through my nose wore me out. I woke up and could barely speak. Interesting that so early in the book writing process that my throat chakra showed imbalances. I canceled all my Zoom calls except for the daily writing session — since I don’t have to talk much for these daily writing sessions. I focused on rest, ate tons of fruits and veggies, loaded up on Vitamin C and propolis spray, and hydration. 

We got the sad news today that Roland has liposarcoma (cancer), and it’s metastasized to his lungs which makes him cough. Even though he’s 13, it feels hard to accept. He’s eating and drinking just fine still and is excited about his daily walks. Feeling sad and mentally preparing for when his soul leaves this earth. I sense he has 2-3 months left.

1,545 words.

Day 4

All that extra nourishment was helpful yesterday. I could breathe through my nose most of the night, so I woke up well-rested and feeling clearer. Since yesterday was such an emotionally draining day with telling the kids what was happening with the dog, I felt tired and empty coming to the page today. Reminding myself that life is a gift, and I’m doing my best to stay present. 

Today is a Scorpio new moon, and my ego wants to plant seeds of intention for this book I’m writing. But what I really want is for Roland to avoid suffering.
1,694 words.

Day 5

It felt good to write today, even though I was rushing to get back from dropping the kids off to school. Rainy Florida weather means extra traffic and accidents. I had just 10 minutes to get to my desk to start today’s co-writing call. 

Today’s writing was about writing habits. I shared with the community members that it may not be time to share their project with others yet. Keep it to yourself until you’re ready. Be discerning about who you’re sharing your project with.

1,983 words.

Day 6

Saturday writing feels different. I usually do most of my writing during the week, so there’s something about writing on a Saturday. Being at my desk felt hard. I wrote for a solid 45 minutes and packed it in.

1,430 words.

Day 7

I didn’t get to write my weekly email newsletter last week when I normally do it, so I was a little distracted for book writing. I logged on to my computer 30 minutes before the writing community session, wrote a quick email newsletter, and then switched to book writing. I was not feeling the writing today — it felt like a slog.

674 words.

Day 8

Another Monday, and after the clocks moving back an hour on the weekend, I was grateful for the extra sleep. Writing about resistance today, which I wasn’t at all resisting. I felt like I was forcing something, though, and being wordier than I needed to just to hit my word count goal. 

1,672 words.

Day 9

I had planned to fast sometime this week, but I’m not feeling it yet. Maybe tomorrow. The words were flowing today and feeling good. I did 900 or so words during our morning session and planned to write in the evening but didn’t. 

997 words.

Day 10

I had a lot of old blog content that I could dig up for today so I spent a few minutes doing that before jumping in. Definitely feeling fast and in the flow today and was craving more writing time when I stopped. I went to hockey practice tonight with the intention of writing and got a lot done despite the parents talking. Sometimes extra noise helps me tune into myself even better.

2,416 words.

Day 11

Kids were off school today for Veterans Day and three minutes into the writing session, J came into my office to tell me about something “crazy” his friend said. Then I heard the TV blaring NHL 22. Oh, interruptions are great corrections in trajectory. 

I was writing about NLP (neuro-linguistic programming) and planting seeds in your unconscious mind today — and definitely did that today — oh so meta. 

1,836 words.

Day 12

No writing today and I canceled today’s co-writing session since we had a 7:30 am hockey game.

I brought my laptop and thought I’d write before the first game. Then I thought I’d write in between. I didn’t, but then I thought I’d write in the car before the second game — which wasn’t until 8 pm. I was exhausted by then and annoyed that I wasn’t writing. Next time, I’ll stay more present and be okay with not writing and just bring a notebook in case writing wants to happen.

0 words.

By day 12, I got bored with the repetition of daily journaling. I stopped for a while and updated these journal entries when I had something interesting to say.

Day 15

We’re heading toward the full moon and I’m feeling less creative and more in the flow of editing so I’ve been focusing this week on gathering stuff from old blog posts and using my daily writing time to edit. Editing is coming really easily for me right now — perhaps because I’m in the luteal phase of my cycle too.

At the halfway point, I was sitting at around 26,000 total words — which felt good to be slightly ahead of my halfway target. 

2,280 words.

Day 19

This Friday morning, I thought, “It’s day 19. I’ve done enough, I can just stop now. Writing on the weekend is dumb — I’m going to cancel those writing sessions.”

And then I stopped myself. This is the exact reason so many people stop. We think we've done enough. NOOOO! I stopped that thinking, went to the daily writing session, shared how I was feeling, and received some knowing nods, and wrote anyway. The time flew by and I’m happy I did it. 

The Friday full moon eclipse energy is wearing on me — I had a short nap at 4 pm after getting the kids from school. I almost never nap, but I was feeling so tired. 
2,826 words.

Day 21  

Over 45,000 words and know without a doubt that I’ll hit 50,000 in under 9 days. The other really cool thing I'm noticing is that when I think I'm not going to write, I sit down in the community sessions anyway and words that I didn't know were in there fell out. 

The other thing that happened today, was that while I was out at J’s hockey games, I started getting ideas to work into the book. I’m glad I had my notebook with me — I busted it out and started making notes on ideas that I want to add to the book. That’s the cool part of integrating a project so deeply — the ideas keep coming.

1,311 words.

Day 25

My word count crept over 50,000 words today! YAY! I hit 50,133. Now, I have a new challenge — finish the shitty first draft by the 30th. With the US Thanksgiving coming, my hosting and family coming from Canada, I worry I won’t finish. I remind myself that I’m working on a made-up goal on a made-up timeline and if I finish in December, it doesn’t matter. 

952 words.

Day 28

I ran Sunday’s co-writing session while driving to Clearwater with Js help. Their team made it to the semi-finals (and wound up losing — womp.)

0 words.

Day 29

The last Monday of NaNoWriMo, a very full weekend of hockey with 5 games an hour away plus family visiting. I’m a little weary but energized by the finish line and focusing on wrapping up 2021. Kids went back to school today after a week off, I didn’t do a bunch of weekend cooking like I normally do since I got back from dropping my mom off at the airport at 7 pm. Reheated some mashed potatoes and Brussel sprouts topped with cranberry sauce and was in bed by 9:30 pm.

I enjoyed the daily writing session through the holiday. With guests here, it also felt like my own little writing retreat. 

1,420 words.

Day 30

Feeling excited and proud about finishing the draft of this book. Today I bounced around a lot and revisited the notes I had that I wanted to weave back in. Opened up lots of chapters and made some tweaks. During the last 10 minutes or so of our community writing session, I got the urge to start drafting the conclusion. As the timer went off, marking 30 minutes, I checked my word count and chuckled — 333 words. Of course.

For me, NaNoWriMo 2021 was a huge success.

I did a lot of things differently this time. If this was your first year giving 30 days of writing and aiming to hit 50,000 words a shot, a reminder that there’s no comparing your journey to anyone else's, including mine. 

Here are the habits I kept throughout the month:

• I wrote morning pages most days and did an abbreviated version — 2 pages instead of 3 

• Movement of some kind — even if it was just a 15-minute walk, push-ups, or squats throughout my day 

• A daily green smoothie

• Candle at writing time

• Writing with the community from 830-9 am every day (except the one day I had to cancel)

• Starting 15-30 minutes before the community writing session gave me the opportunity to get some good momentum, to the community writing time felt like a final push

• Before closing my laptop for the evening, I opened up my book tracking sheet and the Google Doc I’d start writing in so that as soon as I turned my computer on, it was there waiting for me to write

Here are the 7 most significant lessons leading to a successful NaNoWriMo 2021

1. Planning makes success more likely.
   I have quite an aversion to too much structure and planning. Investing an hour or so into my plan helped me stay on track. I planned more than just the book writing — back in September, I created a detailed 12-week plan for my top three priorities — health & healing, family, and business — which totally saved my ass every time I wanted to goof off.
   

2. Decide how you want to feel.
   Before jumping into any big writing project (especially one that’s going to last 30 days), deciding how you’ll feel when you’re finished starts priming your mind to get into that state. Here are some things that unfussy writers wanted to feel when they finished — accomplished, amazing, grateful, proud, expansive, abundant, excited, fulfilled, relief, release.
   Psst… you can choose to feel this way right now.
   

3. You can write shit-tons in 30 minutes a day.
   There’s no need to quit your job, move to a cabin in the woods, or drastically change your life. Building a writing habit makes writing easier and helps you stay focused. A good chunk of my writing was reworked old blog posts, so my writing happened fast. In 30 minutes a day, I pulled together 55,000 words for a book… AND, I ran my business, served clients, exercised, ate well, and enjoyed life.
   

4. Take weekends off.
   The weekends felt like a push, and I could feel my energy waning. Next time, I’ll continue with the daily writing, but will take weekends off to rest more. If writing happens, cool, but I’ll intentionally take some days off and adjust my daily word count goal accordingly.
   

5. Daily writing sessions with the community were fun.
   I really enjoyed the deeper connections with the Unfussy Writing Community members in our daily writing sessions. I also hosted a daily Voxer thread for questions, inspiration, and checking in. A handful of members showed up 99% of the time and some every single day. This was the first time I did a daily session, and I’ll definitely do it again. I’ll also do it throughout the year for Camp NaNoWriMo, which happens in April and July.
   

6. Writing with nature’s rhythms helped me stay energized for the long run.
   I’ll continue to pay attention to my body and the moon. In the future, I’ll try 2 weeks of writing (waxing moon or follicular phase) followed by 2 weeks of editing (waning moon or luteal phase).
   

7. Rewards rule.
   Decide how you’ll reward yourself when you reach certain milestones. I asked the business owners in our Voxer thread how they’d celebrate — candles, sweaters, a day in jammies doing nothing, a museum visit, or leggings. I bought a reMarkable tablet (yes, something to help me keep writing) and I’m super excited.

What’s next after a great NaNoWriMo?

While I’ll miss our daily writing sessions, I look forward to a more spacious calendar for December. We still write together in the community at least 4 hours every week. 

Next up for me — I’ll take a few days away from my shitty first draft and put editing time on the calendar starting in a week or two to align with the waning moon and my luteal phase.

And I’m raising a glass to all The Intuitive Writing Community members for the impressive work, insights, progress, and growth they’ve achieved this month.