Eric at Websnark answers the question, “What good is Nanowrimo?”

I’ve participated in NaNoWriMo for a few years now, and never pulled it off. I was, once, on track to complete it this year, but I’m falling behind as other things interfere. I have an awful time writing when other people are around — not “when other people are talking to me,” but when they’re around at all — so my current living situation isn’t really conducive to completing a novel-length work in a month. (The constant knowledge, as I type, that this novel sucks doesn’t help, but I push through that to write here on a daily basis, so it’s not a dealbreaker by itself.)

What good is Nanowrimo? Well, all of Eric’s reasons are good ones, but for me, the only good is that I enjoy participating — even when I fail*. I enjoy sitting down and thinking about the world my story is set in, and how the basic arc of the story will go (even if I haven’t got any real idea of the details). I enjoy forcing myself to sit down and start expounding on those details.

Nanowrimo is fun. Does it need more of a raison d’etre than that?

* If I haven’t written about it before, I’ll write a post later about why I keep gaming even though I’ve never been any good at it — it applies here, too. If I have, I’ll provide a link when I find it.