In my previous post I talked about starting the NaNoWriMo challenge, as well as reviewing the notebook that I was using. Today the challenge ended and I thought I would check in here to share my thoughts on it.

To recap, this was the National Novel Writing Month, an annual event which was launched back in 1999. The basic idea was for participants to write a novel, of not less than 50,000 words, in the month of November. I had never taken part and only when looking into it this year, did I learn that it had closed down in 2025.

Nevertheless, I decided to take up the challenge to write 50,000 words in a month, without signing up to any online community. It would be NaNoWriMo ByMoSelf. Also, I was not going to write a novel (never having written any fiction and not having any plot in mind). That would have to wait for another year. Instead I would be a “rebel” and write on 30 daily topics from a list of writing prompts that I made. These were loosely biographical on such topics as parents, grandparents, holiday memories, childhood tv, hobbies and so on. I had a nice new notebook at the ready. I had pen cups full of eager fountain pens. A headful of memories. I just needed a writing project like this to put them all together.

This can be done by anyone at any time, of course. November seems a good month. It is getting cold and dark (in my hemisphere). Starting at the beginning of a 30 day month makes it convenient to always know how many days you have done and how many you have left.

Today I reached the end. I had kept it up each day, although once or twice I had a couple of pages left to complete from the day before. I got to the end of my notebook today. I had allowed eight pages per day of the B5 notebook until about half way through the month when I adjusted this to seven pages. Being handwritten, I do not have a word-count, but it is certainly over 50,000. From a few sample pages I have counted and averaged, I think the total is around 63,500.

I can recommend the notebook that I used – the Ryman, B5 Soft Cover Notebook (although I appreciate that this is not helpful if you are outside the UK). I liked the texture of the paper, (especially when low, wintry sunlight fell on the page, showing up the texture). The cream coloured paper was easy on the eye and the 8mm row height suits my preference.

Most of all, it has been a real joy to have this self-imposed task to complete each day and to spend some structured time with my fountain pens. For me, writing with a fountain pen was a big part of the draw. Thinking about which pen I would use, gets me out of bed in the morning!

Would I recommend the challenge? Yes, definitely – if you are like me. That is, if you are someone who likes:

• Fountain pens; spending a solid couple of hours using a pen to see how it feels and performs and how well the ink flows; seeing filled pages at the end of the session.
• Working on your handwriting;
• Dipping into and exploring your memories;
• Practising (or finding and developing) your writing style.

The NaNoWriMo challenge enables you to indulge all of these simultaneously.

I found that I am a morning person for all of this. Much has been written about the benefits of journaling or “morning pages” to free up the mind for the day ahead. Writing to a specific topic gives a basic starting point and theme although I often found myself digressing. I have not read it back yet and may wait a while before doing so!

I think also that this practice, as well as being a valuable habit to nurture, also meets a need to communicate. As a recently retired person, no longer having the society of my office colleagues, a notebook can take the place of someone else’s ears.

Finally, a word about the pens. I usually picked a different one from my pen cup each day, except for the new Asvine V800 vacuum filler, that I filled and used for five days in a row. Several of the pens used, and which were already filled, were also recent acquisitions such as my Arclayer double helix, eye-dropper, three vintage Parkers and the Aurora Style from the October pen show. One pen that I particular enjoyed using was the Faber-Castell Ondoro with smoked oak barrel that I bought in September. One of the beauties of fountain pens is that they are all different: picking up a different one each day was one of the pleasures of this exercise.