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NaNoDoMore Is Back!
It’s November again, and writers around the world will engage in NaNoWriMo, NaBloPoMo, or some other form of daily wordcount goal. We applaud any and all efforts to up your writing game, but for most of our staff here at YeahWrite, we just can’t even. Most of us have tried one challenge or another – sometimes successful, sometimes not – and we decided last year we wanted to offer up an alternative. It was fun, so here we are, doing it again!
Welcome to Year 2 of YeahWrite’s NaNoDoMore. It’s like a little scavenger hunt for your writing.
30 days, 30 goals, but only because that’s a convenient number (I promise you will not be writing a novel in a day). Do any number of the goals. Do as many or as few on a given day as you want to and as you’ve got room for in your life. If big wordcounts are your thing, we’ve got you covered. If you want one or two achievable goals? We’ve got your back.
But Do More. Do something new this month. Stretch yourself a little. There’s no prize for doing the most or the least*, although we’ve got badges for you because everybody loves a badge, right?
*No prize for how much you do, but there’s a prize for one person who does something!
How to “win” NaNoDoMore
At the bottom of this page, you’ll find an InLinkz grid, which will open on December 1. Sometime between December 1-10, 2019, submit a blog post detailing at least one thing you accomplished from the list. One winner will be selected at random by December 15 to win a $30 voucher to the YeahWrite online shop!
You can write about more than one accomplishment, what you did or didn’t do and why, if you want, but you only need to do one item to enter. Normal YeahWrite rules? OUT THE WINDOW. No badge if you don’t wanna, or you can slap the DoMore badge on there if you like. No so what needed. Write a listicle. Navel gaze. Take lots of pictures. Complain about how hard it is to write. We’re here for all of it!
This list is NOT in ascending order from easiest to hardest. What we think is easy you might think is hard, or vice versa. It’s not in order of “this is for your blog, this is fiction, this is nonfiction.” We want you to be comfortable zipping around in the list and just picking out the ones that sound exciting or interesting to you. There’s only one rule: try to do something you’ve never done before, or help someone else do that. Sound good? Let’s hit the list.
- Submit your first post to a YeahWrite grid. Not sure how? Here’s our quick-and-dirty guide. Already a veteran? Submit to a YeahWrite grid you’ve never been on (or the one you submit to less). Is fiction your jam? Try a poem or essay! Are you an essayist? Write a story or a poem!
- Sign up for a workshop or class on writing.
- Get a friend who’s never written for YeahWrite onto a grid (you can host them on your blog if they don’t have their own, just put a disclaimer about whose work it is so we don’t think you submitted twice).
- Post a darling (a favorite phrase or sentence, or a brief passage; something you’d hate to delete) from your current work-in-progress in the Coffeehouse.
- Submit writing to a market that pays. That’s right: get paid for your hard work. We know, it’s a novel concept. (see what we did there?)
- Write a complete story in under 100 words. And hey, don’t forget we host a micro challenge every month! This month’s micro challenge opens November 6, so watch for the prompt.
- Go to a poetry reading. Yes, put on pants, leave the house, and go listen to poets read. Or take it one step further: read at an open mic!
- Go to a book signing and share your experience in the Coffeehouse.
- Write a short story or longform essay between 1,000-5,000 words.
- Write a story over 10,000 words.
- Share a link to an online story or essay that you love on social media. Talk about why you love it.
- Start a conversation in the Coffeehouse about anything writing related.
- Update your author page with a biography and list of publications (This can be as simple as a list of your favorite posts with links to the posts. Don’t be intimidated by the idea that other authors may have more. There will always be an Agatha Christie out there.).
- Read a book that you feel like everyone has read but you, one that you don’t want your writer friends to know you haven’t read yet.
- Beta read for someone. Don’t have a writer friend? Find one in the Coffeehouse!
- Revise an old story.
- Help an author out: review their book on Amazon or Goodreads. No Amazon or Goodreads account? Write a review on your own blog or website and with a link to purchase the book.
- Write a story in a POV you don’t usually use. Love that first-person? Try third. Or even second!
- Host a reading or critique group – at your home, in a venue (many libraries have a free or cheap meeting room you can use), or online. For readings, invite writers to read for about six minutes from a WIP or completed work. For critique groups, have everyone come with a short piece to workshop.
- Co-write a story with someone else.
- Enter a writing competition.
- Participate in NaNoWriMo or NaBloPoMo. (What? If you’re doing all that work you should get credit for it in as many places as you can!)
- Write an elevator pitch for your WIP. Not sure how? Check out this Year of Fearless Writing post with tips.
- Find your own prompt! Go on an adventure. Visit a museum, see a play or a concert, or go for a hike. Open yourself up to be inspired.
- Write an essay you’ve been afraid to write because of what your family might say. (You don’t have to post or publish it. Just write it.)
- Write a poem in a form you’ve never tried. Check out our Poetry Slam archive for ideas and tutorials.
- Find one interesting anthology that’s accepting submissions and post about it in the Coffeehouse: what makes it exciting to you? Why should someone think about writing for or submitting to it?
- Write your own “Best of 2019” roundup. Link to at least five books, stories, and/or essays you read this year and let us know why you loved them. Or make a YeahWriter’s day and put together a list of your favorite grid posts!
- Mix up your writing methods: try writing longhand if you usually use a computer. Or if you usually write longhand, try drafting on a computer or dictating your writing.
- Buy a book for a child. It doesn’t have to be your child. If you don’t have access to a suitable child, ask your local school or prison library what books they’d like and make a donation.
Remember: this isn’t a checklist for destroying your life in 30 days. You’re not supposed to get through all of it. But why not try as many new things as you can reasonably fit into your November? No pressure, no shaming, just… a little NaNoDoMore.
We’ll be checking in with you all month in the Coffeehouse, sharing our adventures and scary baby steps too. What’s the first new thing you plan to try?
I love badges!
Awesome, so do we. Here’s a nifty badge you can stick on your sidebar or tuck into your NaNoDoMore posts (remember, if you’re posting to one of our weekly challenge grids you’ll still need the badge for that grid!).
NaNoDoMore Participants