It’s November, which means it’s NaNoWriMo! Was I planning on doing it before my hospital visit? Not really. Would I have ended up doing something for it? Probably. I usually do because, well, it’s there. Why not? I’m going to be writing, anyway. Why not do NaNoWriMo? I can start a new novel and whip out 50,000 words in a month. Let’s do this thing! In the past few years, however, I’ve grown bored with it. 50,000 words a month is not a big thing for me (and, yes, that IS a humblebrag. Wait. It’s not humble at all, so it’s just a plain brag). I didn’t like the stricture of starting a new novel because it seemed so random and unnecessary. And restrictive. I ain’t mad at it because it got a lot of people to write who were hesitant about writing. It’s overall good, I think, but it was in the need of an update.
On my own, I started messing with the formula. Starting a sequel to a novel. Editing a novel. Then, I found out that NaNoRebel was a thing and I was intrigued. It basically said, “Fuck all the rules. Do what you want as long as it’s writing-related. Even if it’s tangential. Edit a novel? fine. Write a multimedia performance piece? You go! Word count? What’s that? The freedom of NaNoRebel appealed to me because there were no rules. As someone who writes every day (or did before the hospital), I wrote three to four thousand words every day. 50,000 weren’t no big thing.
I’ll admit it. NaNoWriMo felt stale. There was no thrill, no excitement. It’s like the lover you know too well. Yeah, you might get the orgasm, but it won’t be as explosive as it used to be. Then, NaNoRebel swept in on its Harley, revving the engine outside my apartment door at 3 a.m. You have my attention! It looked so goddamn sexy with their legs casually spread across their hog—I knew I had to take that ride, even if it ended in a spectacular crash. I hopped on without donning a helmet and raced off into the night. My heart pounding so loudly, I could hear it in the stillness of the night. The crisp, autumn air blowing in my face, making me feel alive.
Wait a minute. What am I talking about? I forgot for a minute. Oh, right. NaNoRebel. It was a breath of fresh air after doing vanilla NaNoWriMo for several years. NaNoRebel assumes that you don’t need urging to write–no, you need permission to spread your wings and fly! Be as creative as you want to be. There are no limits except those that your mind imposes on you. You want to write a stream-of-conscious poem that consists of you adding one word a day? Go for it! You want to write in Windings? I’m sure that’s fine as well.