The brilliant gamification of NaNoWriMo–and how to write every day.
It’s gamification of something writers dread: actually writing.
It’s November 3. Are you three days into NaNoWriMo? I am.
I love writing. I write Every Single Day. Duh. But there’s a difference with a habit (and training and working out) and having a:
- Goal,
- Deadline,
- Partnership,
- Outcome.
NaNoWriMo has all of that–although I’m adding in the partnership this time. It’ll be a joint operation, a “he said, she said” tag team of a story and no one knows where it’s going.
But we have a deadline and a goal. We want to finish a draft by the end of the month. NaNo has charts and lines and measuring sticks and all kinds of gamification goodies to keep you at it, interested, excited and ready to strive further and faster. Get your word count done, write for the day, check your stats.
Oh, did you see that?
They’re getting you to write. That’s gamification. It’s gaming how you do things. Almost tricking you into doing work that you might not have done had there not been the bar chart or the line graph or that counter thing that keeps adding up and incentivizes you to do more, to keep going, to make it happen every single day.
NaNoWriMo 2016 has begun and I’m all in. Are you?
