Momovember and Nanowrimo.

I'd like to introduce to you a couple of alternate celebrations we do around here every November.

Momovember

National No Writing Month

You've probably heard about that other NaNoWriMo, where people try to write a novel in November. This isn't quite the opposite of that, but it's here to help writers - mostly people who are writers all the time - stay sane.

The purpose of National No Writing Month isn't to do no writing. It's to promote intentional practice of one skill: understanding that doing no writing isn't a disaster. When you inevitably do no writing at a time when you feel like you should have, as every writer in history does from time to time, try not to beat yourself up about it.

That's it. National No Writing Month: don't be a jerk to yourself when you don't write. If you're doing the other NaNo and you don't finish it, great. You haven't lost, you've just chosen other activities. Nobody writes better when they're punching themselves, metaphorically or literally, and nobody needs the anxiety level of an average fiction writer. You'll get 'em tomorrow, or you won't, and either way it will be ok.

So that's November. Go eat dumplings! Write, or don't write, but either way don't waste your energy feeling bad about it.