Image courtesy of National Novel Writing Month
November has been a very busy month for me. My studies are in full swing and I took part in a writing event in November called NaNoWriMo. NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month. NaNoWriMo is a time where writers do their best to write a novel. You have to write every day for a month so that you can reach your word count goal or, better still, you have a novel by the end of the month.
With university in full swing, it was definitely not easy to try and juggle NaNoWriMo and studies at the same time. Of course, my studies were my priority. I could only write once I completed homework and the revision that I wanted to complete for the day.
Writing to me is a hobby. However, I do NaNoWriMo because I have stories in my head and it’s about time I write them. NaNoWriMo is a way to force myself to focus on a story and get it done. I do write once in a while but if I don’t do NaNoWriMo, I’ll take forever to write out my stories – and I need to write them out so that I can write other stories.
This was a very interesting and fun experience though. It felt extremely cool to be a student by day and a writer by night. It taught me more about time management and I had to also be more focused during class.
It also didn’t help that I had a mock exam during November. We have mock exams to see where we stand and also to allow us to prepare ourselves for the real exams in May. In my teaching institution, my head of faculty decided that we should have four mock exams instead of two so that we will be able to know what we lack and we can do to improve. It’s a progress check. Honestly, I do think it’s a good idea. However, I am worried that we might not be able to finish the syllabus in time.
As for my story, I decided to write a love story that has been in my head since I was in secondary school. It’s a little funny because I haven’t really been in a relationship before but here I am writing a love story. Well, not all writers write from experience. I suppose I am one of those because I prefer writing fantasy. This story is a little difficult to write for me because the emotions are very raw for me.
But at the same time, there is a great need to write it. In a way, it’s a coming out story for me. This story is quite personal to me because the emotions that fuel it are real. Honestly, I am not doing very well in NaNoWriMo because it’s difficult to write and because of time constraint. However, it has been interesting and fun to write it. Even though NaNoWriMo has ended, I don’t plan to stop. I plan to continue all the way to December. Hopefully, I can finish it in December though.
Point is, November was a busy month for me but it was fun too.
Carmen is studying the BSc Economics and Management at a recognised centre in Malaysia.
