National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) takes place during November of every year, and the challenge is to write a 50,000 word novel in thirty days. Though the number of words sounds daunting, over 384,000 people participated in 2016, and that sum continues to grow with each coming year.

I attempted this writing challenge back in seventh grade, when I was a preteen and desperately trying to become an author. A brilliant idea had been brewing in my head during the last days of October, so when November 1st came around, I sat down in front of my laptop prepared to write a novel. In reality, I typed around 300 words, closed my laptop, and never touched the story again.

Now, close to four years later, I decided to attempt NaNoWriMo once more. Since seventh grade, I’ve picked up creative writing as a hobby and I’ve found it’s something I really enjoy. I’ve always dreamed of writing a novel, so I decided to try out something that will force me to write 50,000 words in a short time.

Throughout the month, I’ve learned a lot. Firstly, it’s immensely difficult to carve out time to write. My goal was to write around 1,700 words daily, which after thirty days would add up to the total sum of 50 thousand, give or take a few words. However, within the first two weeks I fell behind by great sums, and am still trying to catch up.

Secondly, I have to be prepared to push myself outside my comfort zone. I’ve gotten stuck at plot points several times, and on each occasion the only way I was able to move forward was to make a new idea that I wouldn’t have dared consider before. Making hard choices is something that has to be done if I want to hit my word count.

I’ve also learned to reach out to others. There’s a NaNoWriMo website where people can make accounts to keep track of their word count, follow other authors, and message new people. Taking advantage of this messaging feature has helped me out greatly, as I’m able to make new friends (the website calls them ‘Writing Buddies’) who are willing to help me out if I get stuck, and I’ll do the same for them.

Overall, NaNoWriMo has been a difficult, but incredibly fun experience thus far. I’m unsure if I’ll be able to get my ideal word count, but I know I’ll really push myself to hit the big 50 thousand!