It’s another year, and I have since heard that NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) as we knew it is gone. But despite that, it’s still the day after the sugar rush has ended, and that means it’s another autumn month dedicated to writing prose.
This month marks my fourth consecutive year taking part in the spirit of NaNo by writing on my own. I get that, despite how it shut down in 2025, I still participate every November by writing daily in my existing novel that I largely don’t work much on during other times of the year.
Reflecting on the Past
While I didn’t really finish last year, my determination is real this time. In fact, I would go as far as to say that I think I may have a realistic chance of finally finishing the draft this year.
Without saying much about the plot itself, I had a harder time in both 2023 and 2024 because I wasn’t completely sure where I wanted the story to go yet. I had this idea for a story in my head for years, and I knew where I wanted the end to be, but the issue was how to get there.
Now that a few years have passed, I have laid most of the foundation, and I have a much clearer idea of how I want things to progress from here.
What’s Different This Year
I’m taking a few new approaches for things this year.
- I have since heard that October is considered “Preptober” in some circles, meaning that October is dedicated to outlining, planning, and trying to set everything up to make November’s writing a lot smoother. That said, I actually did get started with meaningful brainstorming and planning in October.
- I reinstalled Scrivener For Windows on my Gentoo system using Scrivenix, marking the first real time I’ve run it through Linux since two years ago, when I last used it for this challenge on Arch Linux.
- I obtained a couple of new keyboards to rotate through, should I want to enhance my typing experience as I tackle this challenge this year. That includes the Kisnt KN85 (my current board), the Linky 87, and the HHKB Professional Hybrid. If I’m going to be typing for hours through the month, I want the typing to feel good because it’s the small things that really add up for an activity like this.
- Just to be on the safe side, I’m also going to track my word counts and current chapters separately in a spreadsheet just like last year. This way, if Scrivener for Windows decides to screw the pooch on my word count again like two years ago, I’ll have a reliable record of my actual word count that will prevent me from losing motivation.
- I’ve gone through quite a few hurdles to get Scrivener to play nice on all of my devices with file sync, on both Apple and non-Apple (another reason that using a spreadsheet for posterity is so important), so I can now write from any device I please (except for maybe the Power Mac G5).
That last one is a particularly big one. This way, I could easily open the draft on my workplace MacBook Air, add a few more words here and there, and then have everything manage to sync seamlessly. Then, upon going home, I could easily boot up Gentoo at home and continue from where I left off. As a bonus, if I’m on the sofa and feel like editing my novel again, I can pop open the iPad and edit from there as well.
Anyway, I will be starting just on the cusp of 100,000 words from last year’s draft, as I was so excited to start working on the story again that I actually jumped right in several days ago and started writing. It also gave me a good chance to test how well my manuscript would sync between my Apple devices and my Gentoo machine. That’s also why my screenshot shows me starting at chapter 44, as I inserted a new chapter a little further back to further develop something that struck me as an amazing idea.
Also, for what it’s worth, I’m going to be using Collabora Sheets to track my word counts and chapters this time around instead of an older version of Excel on the Power Mac G5. The G5 has been a tad busy with old, era-appropriate games as of late, so more of the writing and tracking will be on Gentoo and the modern Apple devices.
Goals and Challenges for 2026
I’m not really going to set a word count goal this time. Instead, considering where I am in the novel, I’m going to see if I can use the month to properly close out the story this time. I’m even open to the somewhat remote possibility that I’m going to finish the first draft by December, which would be an immense victory alone.
If I merely come close to finishing, I’m just going to see where I land once the spreadsheet is all wrapped up after writing daily in November. And again, the consistency is the biggest thing I’m going for as well.
The biggest challenge I might have from here is how my work has seemed more demanding as of late compared to the past few years, so I’m going to have to get enough rest that I have enough energy left at the end of a day to actually sit down and write for a specific amount of time.
Another risk is that my family will be visiting me this time instead of me visiting them, so I might be preoccupied around Thanksgiving weekend, which means fewer chances around that point in the month to sit down and write.
I would normally add that I would account for helping myself with the writing process with something like how I still carry a pocket notebook for further ideas, but honestly, after the “Preptober” I’ve had, I think I’m going to be in a much better place.
That’s All For Now
I’m hoping this is the year, the year where I actually hit the finish line. If not, I’d settle for getting 90% of the way there, give or take, with a good word count to show for it, too. Feel free to comment if you’ve participated in NaNoWriMo or ever thought about doing it, especially if you think that maybe this year would be a great year to get started. Anyway, if you’ll excuse me, the rest of chapter 44 isn’t going to write itself.
