NaNo Plan-O

(Sarah Read is an author, editor, yarn artist, and pen/paper/ink addict. You can find more about her at her website and on Twitter. And check out her latest book, Out of Water, now available where books are sold!)

What are you writing for NaNoWriMo this November? That's the question I ask my writing students, and myself, at the end of September every year. Because if November is all about writing, then October is all about getting ready for writing. I'll certainly be spending October preparing, and there's one particular plan weighing on my mind. Which pen should I use?

Usually I pick a fun rotation of pens. This year I thought it might be fun to do the whole challenge with just one pen. But which one? Maybe you can help me.

I need a pen that:

• Is durable. This task isn't for the weak.

• Is comfortable. Heavy pens and 4-hour writing sessions don't mix.

• Has a high ink capacity. It doesn't have to be a total tank, but I don't want to have to stop to clean it every other day.

• Is easily obtainable. Nothing limited, rare, or not in production.

• You're curious about. Is there a pen that you want to know how it would perform long-term, but don't want to wait long-term for the answer? I'll do a year's worth of writing in a month and let you know. I'll be blogging the whole experience, so we'll all be getting to know this pen very well. Suggest something that you want to see tested.

This pen and I will both be testing our mettle in November. I won't be starting a new project. I have a novel draft that's already over 50K words, but it needs at least another 70K words to be complete, so I'll be diving back into that project and trying to get it closer to finished. I also have five short stories due by the end of the year, and the re-write of the novel I did for NaNo a few years ago that I need to work on, as well. I'll try to do the stories and re-write in October and December, but there's no denying that November is going to be a busy writing month. Especially because I'll be traveling for the first week. But the beauty of analog tools is that they work no matter where you are, so I'll be writing in hotels and airport terminals, taxis and cafes.

Help me choose my pen for NaNo! Post suggestions in the comments, or hit me up on Twitter or Instagram @inkwellmonster. Please also tell me what you're working on for NaNoWriMo this year.

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NaNoWrapUp

(Sarah Read is an author, editor, yarn artist, and pen/paper/ink addict. You can find more about her at her website and on Twitter. And check out her latest book, Out of Water, now available where books are sold!)

If you’re reading this, you survived NaNoWriMo! And since I’m writing it, I suppose I did, too. I did not win this year, but I didn’t think I would. What I did do is write about 30k words, which I certainly would not have done if I hadn’t given myself the extra productivity nudge that NaNoWriMo provides. I’m happy with that!

My book is still far from done, but progress is progress and momentum begets momentum, and despite the fact that I spent most of my spare time on that project this past month, I’m excited to keep moving forward with it and keep devoting time to this manuscript till it’s a full draft. Usually I’m sick of a project by the end of November, but I’m ready to NaNo my way through December as well. And probably January. This is going to be a long book.

The best part of NaNoWriMo this year was getting to see some writing friends in person again. I attended five group write-ins this month, and a huge chunk of my progress is a result of that revelry. Working quietly in a room with other writers, with chat breaks and snacks and prizes, is the perfect blend of friendship and accountability to keep the words flowing.

Another highlight, of course, is getting to use my pens and paper. I emptied eight pens and made good progress emptying another three that were all eyedropper pens (my Omas will never empty. I’m convinced). I rotated a new pen for each writing sprint or session, so they all got equal use. As I emptied them, I added them to my to-be-cleaned pile, which was already WAY out of hand. Now I have a mountain of pen cleaning to do. Maybe December should always be NaPeCleMo. I am now left with only five pens inked, which is a very low number, for me! I’m going to try and empty the rest before I ink any more…

The last highlight of the month for me was my now traditional holiday weekend writing escape. The hardest part of writing is finding the time, space, and silence to actually do it. I now make a point of claiming all three by running away to a quiet hotel by myself for a long weekend where I can devote all my time to writing for those days. It became necessary last year when I was home-schooling my kids through the pandemic and hadn’t had time to write for a number of important deadlines. This year hasn’t been any easier, turns out. My youngest was home in quarantine most of the month, so daylight hours were spent with him and night hours had to be for my own grad school homework, leaving no more hours for writing. More than a third of my writing for the month happened at the lake.

My NaNo kit worked well for me this year. The pens I used were all excellent. I thought for a long time about which one I enjoyed writing with the most this month, but it was impossible to choose. Each one was the best while I was using it. I did realize that my planning notebook for this project, the FIeld Notes Dime Novel Edition, will be a bit too small to contain all of the notes for this book, so I’ll have to add an additional volume. It’s not ideal, as it will mean carrying an extra notebook around, but it does mean I’ll get to use up another fun notebook from my stash.

And speaking of carrying around, my writing kit has now been effectively wrangled by a new bag, the Tom Bihn Parental Unit. I resisted this bag for a long time, as it’s marketed as a diaper bag and my kids are out of diapers, but when they announced that this recent update might be the last run of it for a while, I decided to cave. I’m so glad I did. This is the perfect writing bag. I won’t launch into a full review here, especially as I’m not sure if/when it will be available again, but it is now my favorite bag that I own, and I do not say that lightly.

I hope your NaNoWriMo was successful by any measure, even if not by words. Remember that you get to decide your own definition of success when it comes to art. Whether you participated or not, I hope you got to spend some quality time with your writing tools this month.

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Membership starts at just $5/month, with a discounted annual option available. To find out more about membership click here and join us!

NaNoWriMo 2021

(Sarah Read is an author, editor, yarn artist, and pen/paper/ink addict. You can find more about her at her website and on Twitter. And check out her latest book, Out of Water, now available where books are sold!)

It's that magical time of year again, when writers around the world dive into their projects and new stories are born. And for Pen Addicts, that means we get some extra committed pen and paper time. Every year I get excited to pick my kit for NaNoWriMo. It's a little less exciting for me this year, though. Why? Because it's mostly the same kit as my 2019 kit, which you can see in this 2019 post.

While my Field Notes Dime Novel planning notebook and my Barnes & Noble Italian Leather notebook are the same, my pens and pen case are different. The case is a Rickshaw/Carolina Pen Co collaboration called Unicorn Autopsy. The starting lineup of pens is my Spoke Pens Icon, Gravitas Skittles and Gravitas Skulls, an Esterbrook JR that I am currently reviewing, a Leonardo Momento Zero in Blue Hawaii, and the Esterbrook Estie in Sea Glass. My Schon DSGN Ultem Peek-a-boo arrives this week, so that will definitely join the crew. Most of these are nearly empty as I've been writing with them for a few weeks, so they'll be switched out for a new list fairly soon. The project I'm diving back into is a novel called The Wards of Dunleigh Abbey, the prequel novel to my book The Bone Weaver's Orchard. The plan, when I started this book back in November 2019, was to turn it in this very month of October 2021. Obviously that is not happening...but the least I can do is honor the missed deadline by picking it up again.

While I often write 50,000 words in a month (that's a pretty normal month for a working writer, but it's spread across a number of projects), books are generally longer than 50,000 words. Often closer to double that. This book I started writing for NaNoWriMo in 2019 isn't finished (it's only about 15,000 words in--I did not hit the goal in 2019). I think we can all agree that last year was a hot mess, and between Covid, my kids schooling at home, and the start of my grad school program, I didn't even try NaNoWriMo in 2020. I set my own goal that month of trying to write a short story per week, and I did do that, but it was several projects and only added up to about 20,000 words. Plus, they were already deadlines that I was going to have to do anyway.

I say "only," but there's nothing bad about writing 20,000 words of new stories in a month, and there was nothing wrong with my 15,000 words for NaNo in 2019! That's the beauty of NaNoWriMo. If you write anything at all, you've won. Progress is progress. I've got a messy but effective (and optimistic) tracker in my BuJo.

I go into this NaNoWriMo knowing that I likely won't hit that 50K words on this single project. I'm still in grad school, we're still in a pandemic, my kids still need all my attention, I still have to work at the library, and I'm currently ghostwriting someone else's novel. This book won't be done on November 30th even if I do hit the goal! But anything I add to it, any progress I make on the project, is a step closer to the bigger goal, which it to finish the book eventually. Books are long. NaNoWriMo isn't a magical formula for writing books, but it is a great community-driven way to support each other in the process of writing. And that's what I love about it.

There are some friends I only see during NaNoWriMo. Writers are reclusive creatures, and much like there are "pen show friends" that you only see at pen shows, there are writer friends who only come out for NaNo events. Most events are virtual again this year, which, when it comes to writers, means they will probably be better attended than in-person events. I think I'm most excited to have new NaNoWriMo friends this year--especially Brad, the Pen Addict himself, who has committed to participating. When my pen buddies are also my writing buddies, it's buddies squared. If you want to be my writing buddy, you can find me on Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, and the NaNoWriMo site all as Inkwellmonster. Hit me up for inspiration or motivation anytime! Happy writing and good luck!

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Enjoy reading The Pen Addict? Then consider becoming a member to receive additional weekly content, giveaways, and discounts in The Pen Addict shop. Plus, you support me and the site directly, for which I am very grateful.

Membership starts at just $5/month, with a discounted annual option available. To find out more about membership click here and join us!