5 Interesting Things I Accomplished Instead Of NaNoWriMo
Finding other ways to mark November in the year of the pandemic
Every year when news of NaNoWriMo floods my feed, I gear up to participate. Although not a novel writer, I figure that a 30-day challenge focused on writing anything — essays, blogposts, book reviews — would leave me with a good haul of writing at the end of the month. And like every year before this one, I find myself on the 30th of the month wondering why my good intentions don’t translate into desired results.
In addition to the usual excuses, this time I have Covid-19. I didn’t contract the disease, but my day job involves research geared towards finding a cure for it. My days are filled with meetings, discussions, troubleshooting, report writing, the list goes on. Certainly not conducive to producing the kind of output desired by serious NaNoWriMo participants.
Instead of berating myself for falling short on a goal that I didn’t fully commit to, I tried to do what was possible. Here are five literary things that I did this November:
1. Attended the virtual Singapore Writers Festival 2020
Although I missed the vibrant environment of a litfest where everyone you encounter is either a reader or a reader AND a writer, it was good to attend remote…
