NaNoWriMo – The Acronym, The Challenge, The Agony
NaNoWriMo. Few acronyms are so excitingly terrifying.
And with good reason: National Novel Writing Month, set to start on November 1st, 2010 (a week from today!), might be one of the most insane challenges you’ve ever considered in your writing career. Think you can write a 50,000 word novel in thirty days?
Yeah. Me neither. But don’t fret — you don’t have to do it alone.
That’s the beauty of the program, and just one of two compelling reasons to throw your hat into the ring. NaNoWriMo has grown, from a 21-person book party in 1999, to hosting over 165,000 participants just a decade later. To say it’s popular is kind of an understatement. To say it’s welcoming is another, as NaNoWriMo’s sizable community seems stronger than ever in face of this gargantuan challenge.
People love it. It’s easy to see why, too, when the official NaNoWriMo page lays it out so plainly: “Make no mistake: You will be writing a lot of crap. And that’s a good thing. By forcing yourself to write so intensely, you are giving yourself permission to make mistakes. To forgo the endless tweaking and editing and just create. To build without tearing down.”
That’s the other compelling reason to try, and a reality that NaNoWriMo recognizes in full. Novel writing is hard. It’s a daunting, difficult task, and just the idea of cranking out 50,000 words is more than enough to scare most people away. The month of November, accordingly, is a chance to change that — to write (perhaps terrible) fiction as quickly and efficiently as possible, never stopping long enough to think about the monumental task ahead.
It’s a chance to actually become a novelist, and it’s a chance — whether you consider yourself a writer or not — to do something you’ve dreamed about doing for years.
Interested? Then sign up over at the official NaNoWriMo site. Registration is free and open for the next week, so sign up while you can!
Matt Madeiro is a part-time vagabond, part-time grammar snob, and full-time unemployed. He devotes his time and energy to self-improvement blog Three New Leaves, nurturing it like his own virtual child, offering advice on travel, exercise and living a more minimalist lifestyle. The tweets? They’re just for kicks.
Been counting down the days for a couple of months now. This is my first time participating and it is extremely exciting, but with a little bit of daunting thrown into the mix.
I’ve been working on a project with great assiduity since January. I can’t understand the appeal or yet better, the pertinence of that month. I can see writing 50 000 words in 30 days, but it would require such a perfect amount of zen and downtime for the novel to be good. I can’t see this month as something more than a vulgar exercise and yet, people flood agents and publishers with them.
I’m not convinced.
I have to admit, I don’t understand what you find so offensive and “vulgar” about NaNoWriMo. NaNo is a chance to make yourself sit there and just get it done so you can go back and edit later, and knowing that other people are doing it too is very helpful.
Plus, NaNo is a challenge. Not everyone uses it to write their Great Novel. Some people just participate for the fun of a challenge, or use it to get their creative minds go free. However, others DO use it to write a story they hope to publish, and I think that’s fantastic! NaNo also sponsors classrooms to get kids and teens involved and encourage writing and creativity, and that’s incredibly valuable when so many schools have been cutting their arts programs.
It’s not about writing a perfect story. It’s not even about writing a good story. It’s about writing.
I completely agree with Jamie. There’s nothing *vulgar* about NaNo…
I’ll admit, it’s odd for me because I do edit as I go, as well as editing in chunks to keep my writing tighter, so NaNo is definitely a challenge and at the end, I’m going to freak out at the mess I’ll have on my hands, but that’s what it’s supposed to be.
Get the idea out without restraints.
The people who “flood agents and publishers with them,” well, it probably — no it shouldn’t — happen the way it does. You should not, under any circumstances, start querying right away in December. The point of NaNo is to get a solid base to work with and then revise, just as you would any other novel or story.
But it’s a challenge to get something done. To write.
I don’t know about most people, but I average about 1500 words an hour, so that’s not much time out of the day. So to get a good core of a novel in a month…that’s pretty amazing. At least I think….
I haven’t looked at what I wrote yesterday, nor will I, and I haven’t set aside my time for writing today yet, but I’ll just let the words spill and have fun with it. Normally you restrict yourself so much and try to be perfect that this is just another outlet. A great, creative outlet. A different spin on writing…
And another thing, unless you’re writing middle grade, 50k is NOT a book….novella, yes, but not a book. That’s why you revise after. You flesh it out more. Delete the crap and add better stuff to get at least 60k but hopefully up to 75 or 80…
Just because the novel is written in a month doesn’t mean it’s ready in a month.
That novel you’ve been working on since January, Benoit….I’ll probably work on my NaNo book for as long as you do that one. It’s all how you want to perceive the idea and take the challenge.
(Then again, this is coming from someone who spent so long putting off finishing her first book that she wrote 30k in 2 wks to get it done — and yes, I edited as I wrote, as well. BUT THEN I spent months and months revising after….That’s the key).
I say NaNo’s great. If you don’t like, do things your own way. We’re all entitled :) :)
I love NaNoWriMo! This is my third year participating and it has been so worth it each year.
For anyone who is thinking about trying it but still not sure: just do it. Time is no obstacle. Skill is no issue. And, as Chris Baty says: no plot, no problem.
If you break it down by day, to reach your goal by November 30 you should write at least 1667 words a day. Since the point of NaNoWriMo is to just write and squash the inner editor for the month, it doesn’t matter that 90% of what you write that month ends up being crap. You can’t edit what isn’t there.
Set aside a few 20 minute blocks of time each day and just write. It doesn’t matter if you don’t have the plot outlined or if a scene is giving you trouble. Skip the scene and come back later, or just write whatever comes to mind. You’ll be surprised what neat ideas come out of those free-writing sessions.
The site is free to use and the forums are full of tips and encouragement. Join us!
Signed up last week. It’s my first time. Please be gentle!
“Water for Elephants” was made during Nanwrimo. Just a New York Times Bestseller and soon to be movie, that’s all…hardly “vulgur”.
I actually just read that!
But again, the book wasn’t written during NaNo and then sent off to agents on December 1st. NaNo was just the catalyst…
=D
as in “read that,” I meant read that it was written during NaNo. have the book but haven’t read it yet..
Need to!!