November has gone by in a blur! The “what just happened” kind of blur. Now that the dust has settled I’d like to share some of my thoughts on participating in #AcWriMo this year:

• This year was by far the most difficult year in terms of getting words down on paper because I didn’t “have to” work on my thesis. The previous two years I was under pressure to get my thesis written. Now that I’ve submitted it, I feel less pressured to write.
• The pressure to write is different post-thesis. I have more ‘head space’ to explore my research area. With this freedom comes decisions, which isn’t always easy when deciding the next direction to take.
• Mostly, I think I was tired. I didn’t have any down time after I submitted my thesis and just went straight into teaching new courses. Despite having a detailed outline and a fairly structured writing schedule it was not easy to get my thoughts on paper.
• It is still motivating to read about other people’s achievements on Twitter. Writing is still largely an isolating task, even post-thesis, so keeping connected is important, regardless if it’s on Twitter or via some other means.

This year I did not meet my goal of writing a whole first draft of my book chapter and I’m actually ok with this. I did, however, write 3000+ words that made a for an overly(?) detailed outline of the chapter which I’ve submitted to the editors. I’ve made progress and done what I could this year. I’ve been struggling to write on topics that are related-yet-separate to the work I’ve done for my thesis, and having feedback at this point in the writing process is needed. In all, #AcWriMo this year was a struggle, and yet again I learned a lot about myself as a writer.

How was #AcWriMo for you? Please share your thoughts!

(image by wax115 via MorgueFile)