I’ve been doing Polyglot NaNoWriMo now for more years than I’d care to remember. Every year, I tell myself it’ll be different – it won’t matter if I miss a few days here and there, I’ll be able to catch up; maybe I only need to do half of it, that’s better than nothing; I know I’m super busy this month but I’m sure I’ll find time to write a measly 200 words! And every year, like clockwork, I either lost my mojo ten days in, or for the past couple of years, Nintendo decided to release a new Pokémon game that threw me completely off the rails. This year, however, the stars miraculously aligned, and none of these things happened. Yes, you’re hearing me correctly. For the first time ever, I’ve actually bloomin’ gone and done it.
Now, I’d like to put a couple of caveats on this, because although I have actually completed the challenge, it wasn’t entirely smooth sailing. I didn’t write every day, I had a couple of lapses in the latter half of the month, but I did manage to catch up – there was one day near the end where I had to do a sprint of 800 words in a single night, which was… I don’t want to say ‘soul crushing’, but… that’s kind of exactly what I mean. And it definitely isn’t my best work, I know this, but that’s kind of the point of the challenge – to drive your story along, even if you know you can do better; that’s what editing is for. And I was writing in Welsh, which is still quite new to me, so this definitely needs a once-over with a red pen before I let anyone see it. I have shared it with a Welsh-speaking friend or two, and they’ve been able to make out what I’m getting at; but I know realistically that it’ll be all over the place, grammatically speaking. But that’s a problem for future me.
As I’ve never really gotten this far before, I’m not entirely sure what I’m planning to do next. I think realistically, what I should do is continue with my Welsh textbook and then try and read some novels in Welsh (I’ve got a couple standing by, pictured to the right), and then try and edit what I’ve written. Getting some distance from it will be beneficial, I think, especially over the holiday season when I’ll probably not feel much like spending hours poring over my own messy prose. I’m still a long way off being able to sit down and write completely off the top of my head, the way I can in English, but when I get a bit closer to that I think I’d definitely like to continue with this story… not to blow my own horn, but I really do feel like there’s something there worth exploring. I’d also like to take this opportunity to extend my thanks to both Prifysgol Cymru Y Drindod Dewi Sant’s Geiriadur Ar-Lein Cymraeg-Saesneg/Saesneg-Cymraeg and Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru for being absolutely invaluable, and even to Google Translate (I don’t think I need to link that one) for being available day and night for me to vomit my terrible Welsh into to make sure the English it spat out was vaguely what I was trying to say.
Even though I sort of think my success this year was a bit of a fluke, I have to admit to being immensely proud of what I’ve achieved. It’s been a long time coming, and I just hope it’s the first of many, rather than a flash in the pan. How did you get on, if you took part? If you didn’t, do you think you’d like to take part in the future? It’s not for everyone, I do understand that, but it’s quite a nifty little test of your language skills, and you end up with quite an interesting resource at the end of it. I can heartily recommend it!
That’s it from me this month, and indeed this year – I’ll see you next time in January, where I’ll be measuring my progress against the very loose goals I set myself for this year. In the meantime, if you’d like to get in touch, you can find me on Instagram (@sprakskatan) and Mastodon (@sprakskatan@toot.wales). Until next time, I hope the rest of the year gives you time to relax and unwind, and that you can see all the friends and family you want to. Take care of yourselves!
— J.
den språkliga skatan 