Are you participating in NaNoWriMo this year?
Q&A With Shay Each Sunday
Happy November—aka NaNoWriMo! I’d also like to check in and thank everyone for a great release week and all the support at the end of October for Fractured! If you have not ordered or downloaded your copy yet, you can find it here.
Q: Are you participating in NaNoWriMo this year?
A: For those who are unfamiliar, NaNoWriMo is National Novel Writing Month and it happens every year in November. It is where authors of all levels, with all levels of success, from all over, write a 50,000 word novel in just 30 days. This averages to writing about 1,667 words per day.
In my case, for this year, I guess the short answer would be, no. I’m not participating in the traditional sense, but in my own way I am. I will also note that I have never successfully completed NaNoWriMo, which is mainly because I haven’t tried very hard to and I have never attempted it in the traditional way. I think I’m capable of writing 50,000 words in one month. They might all be garbage, but I could do it. In fact, I probably have before without recording it throughout the month. Both of my previous novels (Fractured, which is now available! and Crashing Waves, which is not published) the first drafts were written rapidly, every day. During NaNo pasts, I have always been working on previously started projects and done NaNo in my own way in order to get further along with those projects rather than preparing to start something fresh on the first of November. This year is somewhat the same. I’m using the month to work on a very new book that I already had a bit of written. And I’m not putting pressure on myself to reach word counts and be at that very definitive 50k by the end.
I’ve been thinking about the concept of NaNo lately as November approached, and I think it’s such a great motivator for some, as well as leading to a serious feeling of accomplishment. It is in fact motivating me this year, too. But at the same time, these sort of strides don’t need to be reserved for one month. I think logically we all know that. As writers, the goal is to write often throughout each day, week, month, and so on. I’ve also never been a fan of the idea of meeting strict word counts. I think back to my high school and college assignments that had to be a certain number of pages (remember when we used to make the periods size 13 font instead of size 12 to make the essay a little longer?). Yeah, that’s how I feel about word count sometimes. If the idea can be expressed in less, then let it. Also, 50,000 words is a very short novel, so for most reaching that word count will only be the starting point anyway, and a lot of it (most of it) will need revising. But I guess none of this is ultimately the point because writers know that, too. For word count, though, I could write filler for days, but it’s not necessarily going to take my story anywhere. I think many of us recognize this as one of the cons of NaNo. If you are writing just to meet a word count then your book is nowhere near finished at the end because it will need intense editing. But, on the flip side, here comes the saying: You can’t edit a blank page. So, it definitely produces many positives about at least finding out where your story is headed even if it’s veryyy messy. This kind of happens to me with first drafts anyway. I throw out pretty much every scene along the way because it’s more like I’m finding my way through a dark room in the early drafts. I know that I hate the scenes or that they’re doing nothing even as I write them, and I suspect that happens to a lot of people during NaNo, or for first drafts in general.
Participating in NaNo must be a positive overall. It pushes you to sit down and write, probably more than you initially would day to day. It shows you what you are capable of and it can help in fleshing out ideas you have had for books. I think as long as expectations are in check about what you produce by the end of the month, it’s a good thing. You probably will not love your novel by the end, but you’ll feel accomplished and may very well be onto something great once you start the refining—at your own pace! Along the lines of expectations, it could be damaging for writers to set out intending to complete their word count or book and even working hard along the way, but if the goal isn’t met it can lead to feelings of deflation. Either you wrote 50k or you didn't. But there’s still so much to be proud of if you made great advancements with your project! And that’s an idea I’m trying to embody whether I’m looking to meet word counts or not.
I’m not putting the pressure on myself this year to meet the word quota and ensure that I write every single day. I’m using the motivation behind the sentiment of this month to push me into my newly started book and to get back into more of a writing routine, even if it’s only 4-5 days a week. I’m not in a state of mind right now where forcing myself to produce on this schedule will be good for me, and I recognize that. I’ll more often feel guilty if I miss a day and I’ll talk myself away from writing altogether. I also have some outside circumstances busy schedule, blah blah, excuses. And that could of course be another con to NaNo; how do you make time for the other important parts of life? I guess if you’e willing to make sacrifices for one month and buckle down, that’s a commendable thing and it simply has to produce rewards even if not immediate. I’m glad to see the writing community working and inspiration flowing, and hoping that I can tap into that as well!
If you are doing NaNo, whether it be in the traditional sense, or just the sense of needing a little extra motivation and doing it in your own “laidback” way like me, you’re writing and that’s the most important! Let me know about your experience with NaNoWriMo, past and present. Has it been a positive?
