Looking for writing practice to do during NaNoWriMo

[PokeNirvash]

So it's National Novel Writer's Month and, being someone who occasionally writes in their spare time - which I have a lot of between the pandemic and my continuing struggle to get employed - I was thinking I could do some practice exercises, prompts and whatnot, to both celebrate and get myself back in the writing mood. I'm not looking to really create a novel or an attempt at one - not yet, anyways - so I don't think actually doing the stuff the NaNoWriMo organization may be doing this month is the right course of action. Plus I have to sign up and I'm well over their targeted age range.

Are there any free NaNoWriMo exercises/prompts/etc. I can do this month that I can schedule on my own terms and without pressure from larger organizations?

[DragonSinger]

1 hour ago, PokeNirvash said:

So it's National Novel Writer's Month and, being someone who occasionally writes in their spare time - which I have a lot of between the pandemic and my continuing struggle to get employed - I was thinking I could do some practice exercises, prompts and whatnot, to both celebrate and get myself back in the writing mood. I'm not looking to really create a novel or an attempt at one - not yet, anyways - so I don't think actually doing the stuff the NaNoWriMo organization may be doing this month is the right course of action. Plus I have to sign up and I'm well over their targeted age range.

Are there any free NaNoWriMo exercises/prompts/etc. I can do this month that I can schedule on my own terms and without pressure from larger organizations?

You can have any goals for NaNoWriMo. People who do their own thing are called NaNo Rebels. Twitter has a pretty robust NaNoWriMo community who do sprints with each other, and the official site isn't bad to join either because there's usually a writing group for everyone, including by age group. Unfortunately, they did one of the worst website updates I've ever seen last year, and the forums are a mess. There's still a ton of people, but finding the group you want takes a few more clicks than it should. The last part is just nitpicking. Newer users probably won't be as annoyed as older ones.

[PokeNirvash]

Good to know. I think what I'll do is find some list examples and work from there, at least for now.

[Bouvre]

NaNo prompts are free too, but if you're looking in more places, the #writingprompts on Twitter is abundant, and I know Rebecca Makkai likes posting writing prompts on her account.

[PokeNirvash]

All right, I've pretty much failed to do anything this month anyways, so maybe that will be a good starting point for the buildup to next year's NaNoWriMo.

[DragonSinger]

34 minutes ago, PokeNirvash said:

All right, I've pretty much failed to do anything this month anyways, so maybe that will be a good starting point for the buildup to next year's NaNoWriMo.

Oh, you are not alone. I tanked and haven't accomplished anything after the first week because I had more house drama, and I wasn't expecting Georgia to be the state that decides the fate of the country. So that respite from politics I was looking forward to when making NaNoWriMo plans never happened. Still gonna do a shit load of writing tonight and tomorrow to salvage something this month.