Why, hello, November! You are bright and shiny (read: dark and rainy and cold and AWESOME), and I’m so glad you’re finally here—just one question.
When did you arrive, and how did I miss you?
(Oops. Two questions. My bad.)
Somehow, the number at the bottom of my screen tells me it is already the fourth. Wha?! This would not usually be a daunting number, except that it’s November. Not that I’m doing NaNo, but still. My November is turning into one big fat bowl of crazy. I need every day I can get.
So…isn’t a non-NaNoWriMo November supposed to be calm, lovely, smooth, and entirely stress-free? (HA.) Turns out, that only happens when you treat November as merely November. If you replace NaNoWriMo with your own combination of NaNoBlahBlahBlah, all sorts of crazy is possible.
For example, here are all the NaNos I’m n̶a̶ï̶v̶e̶l̶y̶ bravely taking on this month:
NaNoWriMo
NOT the pull-out-your-hair, scribble-till-your-arm-falls-off 50K version. More like the 500 words per day version that I invented merely to get WIP #2’s first draft rolling. It’s nice to have a no-pressure outlet purely dedicated to creating something fresh. So far, I’m reaching this goal about every other day.
NaNoRevMo
The lovely Beth Revis invented this one, and the Rev is for revision. (Note that Beth has a distinct advantage, since the entire revision process is practically named for her. If only it was called Olsonision…or Olsonion? Alas. It isn’t.) This is the Big Project. The still-needs-work-but-it’s-kind-of-almost-there project. It’s going well so far. I’ve figured out a process that works for this draft (the fourth)(funny how everysinglepart of this process requires a new system, no matter how well your old ones work) and am excited and encouraged about the upcoming changes. Some are significant, some are minor. All are needed.
NaNoReaMo
This is what Natalie Whipple is doing this month: a ton of reading. She plans to burn through her tall stack of to-be-reads. My stack of want-to-reads is ever growing, but for November, I’ll be happy if I get through one—two at most (James Dashner’s The Maze Runner, Andrea Cremer’s Nightshade).
KaNoGyMo
This is fun to say (imagine Sun’s harsh Korean father on LOST saying this like it’s an order to one of his subservient minions), and I made it up two seconds ago. It stands for Kayla’s November Gym Month. Yep: self-explanatory. My sitting to moving ratio isn’t pretty at the moment, and I am dedicated to getting back into good habits. Even if that only looks like a 30-minute walk on the treadmill—I’m mostly just aiming for consistent effort right now.
NaHoCleMo
Linda came up with this one last year: National House Cleaning Month. Though I sort of need to participate, I hadn’t planned on it. I mean, look at my November plans, y’all! They’re…daunting. Possible, but daunting. To add cleaning to the mix seemed useful, but not ultimately important enough to shove my other goals aside. Until now…
KaNoMoMo
No, I’m not talking about peaches. (MoMo = もも = peach in Japanese, FYI.) Nope—it’s Kayla’s November Moving Month. We’ve had some life transition goals in the works for a while (meaning we’ve been dreaming/praying about them and wondering how/when to actually try to act on them). Well, turns out November is THE month! Things have fallen into place quickly and perfectly, and we’ll be making a major move before the first of December.
As you might imagine, this last thing could flatten the rest of November to the ground. Stack of books to read? Flattened. Shiny new WIP? Pancake. Revisions? Roadkill. If that happens, whatever. Life happens. And this transition? Certainly counts as life. December will be there, if all else fails.
However—I’m going to try to keep the impending transition from steamrolling over my goals. Forward progress, discipline, and a calm spirit: those are my only REAL goals for November. If I can accomplish those, I’ll be happy.
So? Four days in—how are you guys doing with your various sets of lofty goals? Updates, please!
Owl and Sparrow 
Wow there ARE lots of NaNoBlahblahblahs going on! I thought KaNoGyMo was going to be about going to see your gyno regularly in November, which struck me as…weird. I like the Gym Mo’ better. 🙂
Bahahaha—I re-read it that way, too, even though I wrote it! I’m laughing at the thought of a) making that an actual goal, and b) actually POSTING it for the world to see. You’re right, that would be weird! 🙂 Oh well. At least I explained it rather than leaving it to people’s imaginations, haha.
HAHA i totally thought Gyno at first, too 😉
Geez, your list is huge. I should really partake in MeNoGyMo… & was planning on it… but have since failed miserably. You know what? I’m making a commitment to join starting TODAY. I’ve been wanting to start running & just haven’t. What I need to do is print out a picture of my wedding dress & look at it daily, but I’m a little afraid I’ll develop a complex. HA.
I LOVE THE MAZE RUNNER! I just picked up on the sequel on my Nook, but haven’t started yet. You will love it. ALSO. When things settle, you need to go read BEFORE I FALL by Lauren Oliver. Just do it. It’s AMAZING.
AND I AM SO EXCITED YOU ARE MOVING CLOSER! Really, I think it only shaves 45-60 min off of the distance, but nonetheless. I’m a little disappointed you aren’t moving HERE, but it’s ok. Baby steps 😉
Yeeeah…it started out as a wee little list—edit a lot, write a little, run often. And then, BAM. All of the sudden, the list exploded (due to welcome, but HUGE, circumstances). The reading goals are the most expendable right now, but they are also the ones that require the least physical/mental exertion, lol. Eh. We’ll see what I actually get done. I know I won’t be able to do it all, but if I don’t at least try to do some, I’ll be tempted to put it off completely and not get anything done! Haha. 🙂
DUDE. I’m so excited we’re moving closer, too! According to my friend Google, I’ll be 116 miles closer to you now! Whee! (278 miles v. 162 miles) This is much more conducive to spontaneity than our current situation. (I just got a wicked craving for another Melting Pot double date. This will have to wait until appropriate funds are set aside, but we TOTALLY need to make this happen.)
Okay, I’m adding the Lauren Oliver to my list. Not that I’ll get to it this month, but still. I’ve heard amazing things.
Hm. I think the idea is to focus on one crazy in the month of November, but then I guess it’s difficult to choose! Though I am a dedicated staffer of NaNoEdMo in March I do love the sound of NaNoRevMo… rev that engine! vroom, vroom! They say the red one goes faster but I’m not sure that’s true of the red pen.
Ahem, perhaps the crazy of November is getting to me too? Good luck!
Haha, I agree—like I told Melissa, my list was small at first. I figured two normal projects would be like trying for one HUGE NaNo project. Add in 30-60 minutes of exercise, and boom! Easy enough, right?! Ha. Forgot to account for life. 🙂
Ah, NaNoEdMo! I knew I’d heard of something like this, but I didn’t know when it happened or what it was called. Sweeeet. I like the Rev, too. Plus, March is way too far off in the future. 🙂
Good luck with the November crazies! hehe
*shudder* I don’t even want to THINK about my sitting to moving ratio…
Now, my sitting-at-table-and-working ratio v. sitting-on-couch-watching-reality-TV ratio? This is a ratio I’m proud of! (Uh, lately.)
You can forget I mentioned the first ratio, if you want. 🙂
Hahaha! Yeah…this is why I think November should be removed from the calendar…
I’m trying to imagine this. If we wiped November from the calendar, what would we replace it with? lol
How about NaShoStMo? That’s what I’ve dubbed my short story writing month. As for how it’s going, I’m a wee behind, but I had to stop and learn Scrivener. Quite worth it as far as I’m concerned. I usually don’t do as well writing ahead, and this was the first time I was able to just break ahead and work easily on the parts I DO know in the story. Very excited. I figure by the end of Sunday, I want to be caught up and that’s fine for me.
It’s fun reading all the different things people are doing with their Novembers! Some stuff I’d never have thought of. And I’ll be rooting you on for your exercise. And the moving. We’ve moved so much in my growing up years that it’s kind of fun for me. I hope it goes really smoothly for you (and good weather). I’ll be praying! 🙂
LOVE Scrivener! I hope you’re loving it as much as I am. 🙂 And NaShoStMo=awesome! I know you mentioned you’re having an odd November—I’m guessing that’s thrown off your short story goals a little bit?
Hope all is well, regardless of how much progress you’ve made. It’s the long haul that counts, not burning yourself out quickly. 🙂
Oh, and thanks for the prayers—we need them these few transitional weeks!