NaNoWriMo 2021

(Sarah Read is an author, editor, yarn artist, and pen/paper/ink addict. You can find more about her at her website and on Twitter. And check out her latest book, Out of Water, now available where books are sold!)

It's that magical time of year again, when writers around the world dive into their projects and new stories are born. And for Pen Addicts, that means we get some extra committed pen and paper time. Every year I get excited to pick my kit for NaNoWriMo. It's a little less exciting for me this year, though. Why? Because it's mostly the same kit as my 2019 kit, which you can see in this 2019 post.

While my Field Notes Dime Novel planning notebook and my Barnes & Noble Italian Leather notebook are the same, my pens and pen case are different. The case is a Rickshaw/Carolina Pen Co collaboration called Unicorn Autopsy. The starting lineup of pens is my Spoke Pens Icon, Gravitas Skittles and Gravitas Skulls, an Esterbrook JR that I am currently reviewing, a Leonardo Momento Zero in Blue Hawaii, and the Esterbrook Estie in Sea Glass. My Schon DSGN Ultem Peek-a-boo arrives this week, so that will definitely join the crew. Most of these are nearly empty as I've been writing with them for a few weeks, so they'll be switched out for a new list fairly soon. The project I'm diving back into is a novel called The Wards of Dunleigh Abbey, the prequel novel to my book The Bone Weaver's Orchard. The plan, when I started this book back in November 2019, was to turn it in this very month of October 2021. Obviously that is not happening...but the least I can do is honor the missed deadline by picking it up again.

While I often write 50,000 words in a month (that's a pretty normal month for a working writer, but it's spread across a number of projects), books are generally longer than 50,000 words. Often closer to double that. This book I started writing for NaNoWriMo in 2019 isn't finished (it's only about 15,000 words in--I did not hit the goal in 2019). I think we can all agree that last year was a hot mess, and between Covid, my kids schooling at home, and the start of my grad school program, I didn't even try NaNoWriMo in 2020. I set my own goal that month of trying to write a short story per week, and I did do that, but it was several projects and only added up to about 20,000 words. Plus, they were already deadlines that I was going to have to do anyway.

I say "only," but there's nothing bad about writing 20,000 words of new stories in a month, and there was nothing wrong with my 15,000 words for NaNo in 2019! That's the beauty of NaNoWriMo. If you write anything at all, you've won. Progress is progress. I've got a messy but effective (and optimistic) tracker in my BuJo.

I go into this NaNoWriMo knowing that I likely won't hit that 50K words on this single project. I'm still in grad school, we're still in a pandemic, my kids still need all my attention, I still have to work at the library, and I'm currently ghostwriting someone else's novel. This book won't be done on November 30th even if I do hit the goal! But anything I add to it, any progress I make on the project, is a step closer to the bigger goal, which it to finish the book eventually. Books are long. NaNoWriMo isn't a magical formula for writing books, but it is a great community-driven way to support each other in the process of writing. And that's what I love about it.

There are some friends I only see during NaNoWriMo. Writers are reclusive creatures, and much like there are "pen show friends" that you only see at pen shows, there are writer friends who only come out for NaNo events. Most events are virtual again this year, which, when it comes to writers, means they will probably be better attended than in-person events. I think I'm most excited to have new NaNoWriMo friends this year--especially Brad, the Pen Addict himself, who has committed to participating. When my pen buddies are also my writing buddies, it's buddies squared. If you want to be my writing buddy, you can find me on Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, and the NaNoWriMo site all as Inkwellmonster. Hit me up for inspiration or motivation anytime! Happy writing and good luck!

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My 2019 NaNoWriMo Kit

(Sarah Read is an author, editor, yarn artist, and pen/paper/ink addict. You can find more about her at her website and on Twitter. And check out her first novel, The Bone Weaver’s Orchard, now available where books are sold!)

By the time you read this, writers across the world will be biting their nails and watching the clocks, waiting for midnight. Not in fear of Halloween haunts! But because at the stroke of 12 on November 1st, NaNoWriMo begins!

If you're unfamiliar with the phenomenon, NaNoWriMo is National Novel Writing Month, where writers are challenged to complete a 50,000-word project in the month of November. That means about 1,667 words a day, every day, all month long. It's not difficult to write 1,667 words in a day, but it's a pace that can be tricky to sustain, especially with the demands of work and family and life in general taking precedence. The point of NaNoWriMo is to give a chunk of time where you put art first. It's a focused dedication to meeting a specific writing goal, and it can be very rewarding.

All sorts of folks participate, from working writers to dabbling storytellers, to the person who decides on October 31st that they've always wanted to write a book, so why not. Everyone is welcome. The point of NaNoWriMo isn't to write the next Great Novel, it's just to write. And, because they're written very quickly, most NaNoWriMo projects are pretty awful. At first. That's kind of the point--to stop worrying too much about how every sentence sounds and just get the story down, so you can clean it up later. You can edit a book, but you can't edit the book you haven't written yet.

Of course, you can make editing a little easier on yourself if you prepare for NaNoWriMo. Lots of people plan the details of their project well in advance, so they can focus just on the word-slinging come November 1st. I prepare as much as I can. A basic outline, some research and notes are all part of the plan. But, as a pen addict, the main focus of my preparations--what tools do I use??? Sometimes I think I participate just for the sake of filling another notebook and using as may pens as possible.

I hand-write all my books. Partly because of my love for stationery, sure, but also for convenience (I can write anywhere and anywhen), and partly because my brain just works better on paper. Some of my favorite notebooks to write novels in are the Barnes & Noble Italian leather journals. I've written a few books in them, and they always work fantastically. We don't need to talk about how many empty ones I have waiting for me on my shelf... coughsevencough. (This is why I have to do NaNoWriMo. If I don't write fast, I'll be buried alive in empty notebooks.) They have enough pages that I can fit 50,000 words in them, they're very sturdily built, so they stand up to being carried around and used intensively for a few months (or years), and the paper is excellent. I can use any fountain pen in them and I get no feathering or show-through. There are dozens of designs, and I always try to pick one that fits the theme of my book.

This month, I'll be writing a prequel to my first novel, The Bone Weaver's Orchard. I picked a journal that is covered in lovely butterflies. If you read BWO, you can probably guess what happens to the butterflies. My planning notebook, where I keep notes and lists and any random thoughts or research, is a Field Notes Dime Novel edition. I adore those books, and I bought as many packs as I could carry when I visited their headquarters in Chicago.

But what pens!? That was an easy decision this year, fortunately. Often, I agonize over that choice. But just a few weeks ago, Brad sent me the Colorverse Apollo 11 set of inks to review, and I had to ink up all five inks for the review. I decided to put them in my favorite acrylic pens from indie pen makers, because why not. So I've had five more pens than I'm used to having inked, and that ink needs to be used! I noted in that review that the colors are about perfect for writing and editing, so I'm going to put that combination to good use. Of course, it will take many fills of many pens to reach the goal, and I'm hoping I'll get to air out a goodly portion of my whole pen collection before the month is through. For the starting lineup: A Newton Pen in black with subtle sparkles that I picked up this past May at the Chicago Pen Show, a Carolina Pen Co. in Primary Manipulation that I grabbed at the Chicago show last year, a Kanilea that is also from last year's Chicago show, another Newton Pen... er... also from last year's Chicago show (I should not be allowed at that show, good gracious), and another Carolina Pen Co. that I got secondhand off of Instagram. These pens bring me a lot of joy, and they all scream, "Pick me up and write!" which is exactly what I need to kick off NaNoWriMo.

I'm currently in the busiest year I've ever had in my whole life. That's really saying something, considering how busy I usually strive to be. The very idea of writing a new book right now is, for me, madness. But I'm doing it anyway. Partly so that the book will get written, or at least started. Partly because I have friends and writing students attempting it, and I want to offer my support in solidarity. And partly to use my pens (and to save my family from the crushing weight of an empty notebook avalanche). The secret to winning NaNoWriMo is that you always win, no matter what. Was your goal 40,000 words but you only got 20,000? Congratulations! You wrote 20,000 words in a month! That's fantastic! I'm looking forward to writing words in November--any number of them. And I know I've got a great kit for it. I'll be documenting progress on Instagram! Follow along @inkwellmonster and tag me in your NaNo posts so I can cheer you on!

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NaNoWriMo, the Pen Addict Way

(Sarah Read is an author, editor, yarn artist, and pen/paper/ink addict. You can find more about her at her website and on Twitter.)

If you noticed, during the month of November, your writer friends looking a little wild-eyed or sleep deprived, or perhaps couldn't find them at all, they may have been participating in NaNoWriMo--National Novel Writing Month.

For NaNoWriMo, writers commit to producing 50,000 words in 30 days, usually on a novel manuscript. The goal is to shut off the inner editor voice that tells us that what we are writing is terrible. Because of course it is terrible--all first drafts are. But you can't edit thin air, so get the draft down and fix it later. Plus, it's a fun way to connect with writer friends and band together in what can be a grueling sort of writerly boot camp.

It's not necessarily the pace of NaNoWriMo that's difficult. Writing 1600 to 2000 words a day only takes a few hours. It's sustaining that pace that gets to you--because you have to give up the things you'd normally do in those few hours, like visit with friends, watch your favorite movies, sleep.

This is where pen addicts have a huge advantage. HUGE.

How would you like to play with your pens and ink for two hours every day for a month? Best month ever--right? Yer darn right, it is.

I've participated in NaNoWriMo a few times, and always using analog tools. At the write-ins I've attended, most people pop open laptops. Precious writing time is devoted to fighting over outlets and backing up hard drives. It really doesn't matter what you use, as long as you're writing, but using a nice pen, fun ink, and good paper just makes everything easier.

This year, my setup was focused on portability and durability. I have a day job and two young kids, so my "few hours a day" is taken in increments of five minutes whenever I can get them.

For my planning and outlining, I used a Graphilo grid notebook. It's been perfect and wonderful. I wish I had indexed it from the beginning, because it got a little disorganized in the fray, but the small-scale grid and excellent paper facilitated outlining and making very tiny notes in margins. All of my historical research, character profiles, and plot ideas are stowed happily within. I guard it well.

For my main notebook, I used one of the Barnes & Noble brand Italian leather notebooks. I don't see these notebooks raved about much in the stationery community--perhaps because they can only be purchased at Barnes & Noble, which makes them inaccessible for many. If you have access to one of their stores, these notebooks are worth checking out. The leather covers are beautiful, the paper is great, and they have enough pages to hold a hastily-written first draft. I strapped a Quiver pen holder on mine. It did warp the leather cover a little (the leather is soft and only reinforced with thin cardstock), but it wasn't too excessive and I needed to be able to grab my tools in one unit. I always kept two pens in the Quiver, just in case.

For pens and ink, I used...a lot. I started with a Conklin Word Gauge, because I've always wanted to know how many words I could really write with it. It boasts that you can write 5k words on one fill, and the ink window has the level measured in thousand-word increments. Well, my wet medium nib gave me about 12.5k words on one fill. It lasted so long, I was getting anxious to use something new. When it finally ran dry, I decided to work though my case of inked pens and empty and clean as many of them as possible. I wanted to see if I could empty every pen I had inked. Turns out I couldn't. That's how you know you have too many pens inked--write a whole book and still not run out. But I enjoyed the rotation immensely, and got to use some of my favorite pens in the process. I cleaned out the empties every weekend--sometimes as many as six at a time. Not all were full to begin with, so it's difficult to estimate how much ink I actually used, but I'd guess close to 20ml. Which gives me hope that I might actually, someday, use most of the ink I already own, as long as I stop buying new ink and write a novel every month for the rest of my days.

The most common question I get when doing analog NaNoWriMo is how I know I've written 50k words. There's certainly no time to count them out every day, and my notebooks don't have an auto word counter (though I bet that's a thing, somewhere). I estimate--I count my words for the first few days, and calculate an average word count per page, then mark my page numbers with important milestones. I needed to write about 300 pages to reach 50k this year. I wrote to 313 to be safe. There are plenty of word-generating tools on the internet to create a document you can use to verify your word count in the NaNoWriMo website--I use a Lorem Ipsum creator.

While I did hit the 50k mark this year, my book still isn't done. So I'm still going! I'm doing NaNoWriEternity. When I'm finally done with the draft, the real work will start--editing. Because first drafts are terrible.

(Watch Sarah flip through her entire notebook on Instagram.)

One of the best things about NaNoWriMo is that there's no way to lose. Even if you only go for one day, that's a few thousand words you didn't have before--winner! And if you're a pen addict, with your favorite pen and a fresh notebook and a lovely ink at hand, you win double. Because no one enjoys writing, as an act in and of itself, as much as we do.

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Enjoy reading The Pen Addict? Then consider becoming a member to receive additional weekly content, giveaways, and discounts in The Pen Addict shop. Plus, you support me and the site directly, for which I am very grateful.

Membership starts at just $5/month, with a discounted annual option available. To find out more about membership click here and join us!