Well, here we are once again. Another Polyglot NaNoWriMo, another chance to drop out half way and feel bad about it. But you know what? This time, I refuse to let myself feel bad about it. November has been a busy month for me; I work full time, which I juggled with an online course for a language I had absolutely zero prior experience in (more on that later), not to mention working overtime and trying to reignite my ailing social life. For the challenge itself, I ended up writing just short of 2,500 words (most of it in longer sprints of around 800 words) – but I hasten to add, that isn’t an insignificant amount. So in a manner quite out of character for me, I’m choosing to be proud of what I did manage to achieve, rather than focusing on what I didn’t. It could be that I continue the project over the next few months and finish behind schedule, or maybe I’ll put the file on my computer somewhere and never open it again. In the immortal words of Doris Day, que sera, sera.
It’s strange, really. I’ve participated in Polyglot NaNoWriMo every November for a number of years now, and I’ve never once managed to finish. You’d think a sensible person would realise that it’s time to hang up my fountain pen and call it a day, but you know, it’s not even about finishing (I’m slightly averse to call it ‘winning’ as they do for regular NaNoWriMo, possibly because I’ve only ever ‘lost’) for me. I just enjoy doing it. I enjoy flexing those muscles that I rarely get to use otherwise – sure I write blog posts in other languages sometimes, but even they aren’t quite the same as writing something fictional, something that’s leapt straight out of my head and onto a page. There’s something quite magical about it, and I love being able to look back at however much I’ve managed to do and think: yes, that was me. I did that. So, glutton for punishment that I am, I’ll more than likely to try again next year. And I hope you’ll join me, no matter what you ended up with. That was the best thing about the challenge this year, that so many people actually wanted to take part; and I’ve enjoyed reading your updates on Twitter all throughout the month, even as I myself was falling irrevocably behind. So thank you all for that, from the bottom of my heart.
As for what to expect from me next? Well, this is quite possibly going to be my final post for 2021, so in the new year you can expect some very loose goal setting, a second part to the second instalment of my Swedish true crime series (you can find the first part here, if you missed it), and I’ll finally reveal what language I’ve been learning over Zoom twice a week since late October. If I can work out how to string a couple of meaningful sentences together by then, I’m sure I’ll be including those too. The course has been a lot of fun so far, and I’m looking forward to telling you all about it.
As always, thanks for reading, feel free to get in touch on Twitter or Instagram (I’m @sprakskatan on both), and I’ll see you (most likely) next year! Take care out there!
– J.
den språkliga skatan 