I've never won NaNo before and have also never been able to consistently work on any creative writing projects, particularly fan fiction. I'm also a perfectionist and highly critical of my own writing, so get discouraged easily.

So separate from my word count goal, I set myself a personal goal to write every single day. It always felt like I didn't have enough time or energy to write. Getting into the habit of writing every day really made me realize how much time I was spending scrolling through Reddit, watching TV, and doing other unproductive things instead of being creative. This month has taught me to keep trucking even when I don't feel like writing, even when Scrivener deleted two entire days' worth of writing, and even when I didn't feel like what I'd written was any good.

I also had a super supportive cabin where many other people were writing fan fiction and we had an active Discord which definitely helped with motivation, accountability, and sharing small victories!

I'm just super proud of myself and would encourage anyone thinking about working on fan fic for NaNo to give it a try!