As in NaNoWriMo – aka the annual challenge to write a novel in a single month.

You can find the background and history of the challenge in my postmortem from last year. But a quick update will be to note that the official non-profit has closed down. It would appear that foot in mouth disease can actually be fatal. But jokes aside, it is sad to see a non-profit dedicated to getting people, and particularly youngsters, reading and writing close. It was also a major source of community for many writer-people, especially those just starting their journey.

Fortunately, there are still many groups around the world doing the exercise, holding the community. Which is why I still participated in Nano in 2025.

What Nano is for me

Now the tradition was all about writing a novel in a single month. But for mere mortals like myself, that is an entirely unreasonable expectation. It is not just a level of writing productivity (over 1600 words a day) and time commitment (close to 2 hours) I cant meet. It is also a level of creative flow I cant sustain. I need the breaks in order to recharge the well, to let the ideas I have written settle, and slowly anneal into new ideas, new directions.

Which is a long winded way of saying that when I talk about Nano, I’m referring to a structured period of writing intensity. I am saying that I don’t want to try finish a novel in a single month. Usually we set a target of 250 words daily. But the thing is, I know I can easily meet that, I know all the tricks for finding those little windows to write in. This year’s Nano wasn’t about any of that.

2025 learnings

The things I learnt this year were in some ways incidental to Nano.

Hand-writing

The first is that I learned is that I can write much better, by hand.

I got this idea from Mary Adkins – she was running a mico-Nano project, 10 000 words in 3 days. I signed up with no intention of trying to do the challenge, but to see what her webinars were about, what pearls of wisdom she had to share that would allow people to write that much that fast (Her author story is compelling, and her insights very useful, although her system gets very salesy after a while).

But the idea that I couldn’t get out of my head was writing by hand, in a notebook – most of the detail of this method is behind a paywall, but there were some gems. Like writing only on the one side of the page – leave the other for notes. And OMG does that work. I mean, it runs against every miserly bone in my body to leave half a notebook blank, but having that space to scribble ideas right next to where the words are – amazeballs.

I feel like I slow down when I write like this, my mind has to be slower and more intentional because my hand has a limited speed.

I find it easier to switch off the critic, to stretch for that flowing, stream-of-consciousness state. I attribute that to journalling, and morning pages.

And you can, and I automatically do, take a notebook anywhere and write, without the faff or security concerns attached to a laptop.

It is not exactly in the theme of Nano, but it was a massive unlocking for me. I have already finished 1 whole notebook for the current story (over 10 000 words).

Inspiration

I also started a new story this Nano. I suddenly I had this idea for a story, and some things that were not even really scenes, just ideas with linked emotions. But the next day I’m sitting in the airport waiting room and I pull out my current journal and just let it flow – to the point that I forgot about the trolley full of luggage and camera equipment I was supposed to be watching.

The more I write of this story (in my notebooks) the more I realise what story I am telling, why those parts have chosen themselves to be in this story. The structure of it is helping too, lots of little scenes, a non-chronological order. So when the inner critic starts sharpening his claws I just point out that obviously the scene will change once we establish the real order, stupid.

This story didn’t coalesce because it was Nano. That has to go to my work with mindfulness, with taking action on my emotional health and relationships, on the year of extraordinary drama life has presented me with, and on the Artist’s Way (I’m not even half way through, and a full post about this will follow, but I can already see and feel such a difference, in my outlook, my writing, my art).

Community

This Nano was also about building relationships. I have been part of the Joburg chapter for a while, I have attended many of their events, but it’s starting to feel like a deeper connection, so many of the same faces coming again and again. That it’s not meeting for a shared goal, it’s friends hanging out. The last ‘writing’ session we had, we managed a single 15 min sprint in 3 hours, but we laughed until my ribs hurt.

I learned a lot during Nano this year, none of it was how to write a novel in a month.