I've heard about NaNoWriMo going back at least eight years. I had classmates (back when I was a middle-aged college student ;) talk to me about it, but I always thought the 50,000 words goal was just unattainable.

This year, I finally stepped up to the plate and participated, although with a very reasonable and achievable goal for my first go-around: 10 blog posts.
Result: I posted 12 articles. ;)

The effect of meeting such a meagre goal was actually quite startling. I find myself looking forward to writing every night before bed and every morning immediately after I woke up for up to an hour each. I greatly enjoyed talking about NaNoWriMo goals and progress with FediFriends on our instance, and even though I never even visited the official NaNoWriMo website or Discord (Ewww!), the camaraderie in just our teensy little group on the Fediverse was really fantastic.

It's hard to believe that I actually developed a daily writing habit after only a single month (the first half of which I wrote only four articles), and just how enjoyable writing these posts has become. In addition to the daily writing, I find myself adding items to my "ideas for blog articles" note in SimpleNote several times a day now, to such an extent that I don't see myself running out of material to write about anytime soon.

In brief, NaNoWriMo did exactly "what it says on the tin" (a saying I've enjoyed copying from my friends at the TuxJam podcast) and even though I set a very low bar for myself, I'm blown away by the positivity of the experience.

💯 would recommend!