With NaNoWriMo collapsing, many organizations are splintering off and creating their own writing challenges. While many mourn the loss of NaNo's sprawling community and wide-reaching hashtag, there are many benefits to writers having more, smaller groups! Small, self-managed groups are more nimble to adapt to the needs of their users, and they can tailor the offerings of the group to things their users actually want.
One such group that has taken off since the Great NaNo Schism is Rogue Writers. You may have heard me talk about them before--they host a quarterly writing contest that I have both won and subsequently judged. I absolutely love this group and the supportive, encouraging environment that the community holds dear.
RAWR
RW is having their big, ol' writing challenge in October. Rogue's Amazing Word Rush will have flexible, tiered goals, so no more "50k words or you're a loser" mentality. Also, the "set your own goal" tier makes it accessible to revising, poetry, screenplays, graphic novels, or really any kind of non-drafting project that NaNo discouraged for some reason. Plus, we get to end the challenge with Halloween parties, so win-win-win as far as I'm concerned.
Lorem Prep & Planning
Last year for NaNo, I started and won with a project called Lorem Ipsum. (The MC's name is Lorem, so it's not completely a placeholder title.) For RAWR this year, my goal is simply to finish that zero draft. I don't honestly know how many words that's going to be. Less than 50K I think? For zero drafts, I'm fine with skipping dialog, [author note here], and sometimes skipping entire scenes if I'm stuck. I need to have something incredibly messy down before I can really think about the story as a whole, so I proceed with the intention to let it be messy.
That said, I am still trying to plot something of a structure. Last year, I plotted out to the midpoint using a pretty loose outline. I planned major plot points, but didn't necessarily plan how those plot points were going to happen. It was the perfect balance of planning and discovery writing for me. I certainly still hit a few road blocks, but I just skipped them and moved on to the next scene. It was the easiest NaNo I've ever completed!
But now, here I am with only a few scant notes for the second half of the story. I've tried to plot out the rest in the same way I did the first half, but the last few weeks have been chaos due to health issues in my family including a life-changing diagnosis for my mom. To put it lightly, this summer has not been the flurry of creative energy I'd hoped for.
It's the last week of September, I have family coming to visit this weekend, and a ton of blank index cards on my plotting board.
So. This is part of why I don't know what word count goal I'm going to set for RAWR. I think "Finish the Zero Draft" is going to have to be enough, and whatever number of words that winds up being, I'm going to have to be happy with that. And whatever brainstorming I can get done this week, I'm going to have to be happy with that. And whatever draft comes out on the other side, it will be more complete than it is now, and I'm going to have to be happy with that.
Are you doing any of the NaNo alternative challenges that are popping up? Please share details below so more people can find out about all the new options!
And check out my free Pixel Progress Tracker printable to keep your momentum going all month long!
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