Why You Should Do NaNoWriMo This Year
Why You Should Do NaNoWriMo This Year
November is right around the corner. Ready to write a novel in a month?
The Story Writer’s Path
November is right around the corner. Ready to write a novel in a month?
I’m interrupting my regularly scheduled programming on aspects of story to urge you to consider doing something wild and crazy.
You should write an entire novel in the month of November.
You’ll be joining nearly 800,000 other people around the world in attempting to get 50,000 semi-coherent words down on the page.
It’s NaNoWriMo! (National Novel Writing Month for those of you who’ve been living in a cave or distracted by politics.)
All you have to do to “win” is write a novel of 50,000 words and for your effort, you can get a badge to put on your website. (By the way, by my calculations, to write 50,000 words in November you need to average 1,666 words a day. Child’s play.)
It sounds ridiculous, I hear you say. Why would I want to torture myself like that? November includes a major holiday, so how am I supposed to write a novel around that? And anyway, nobody actually writes a decent novel doing this, do they?
Well, I have heard agents say they dread December 1, because that’s the day all the NaNoWriMo “winners” send off their newly finished (and probably desperately in need of rewriting) novels. But please also consider that many well-received novels have started out as NaNoWriMo books. Romance and thriller writer Rachael Herron first did NaNoWriMo in 2006, and has written 20 more books since then. Hugh Howey wrote Wool, and Marissa Meyer wrote Cinder during NaNoWriMo. Erin Morgenstern wrote Night Circus. That’s a wide variety of inspiration for you!
But even if you don’t win NaNoWriMo, even if the novel you write during November 2019 never sees the light of day, there are excellent reasons to do it and I’m here to explain those to you. (By the way, I’m mentioning NaNoWriMo now, in the middle of October, so that you have time to prepare. The rules of the organization state that you can do as much preparation as you want ahead of time, as long as you don’t start actually writing until November 1.)
Here’s why I think you should do it:
It takes the pressure off
Write a novel in a month? Preposterous! But so preposterous that you might as well have at it. And have fun while you’re doing it. You got into this game in the first place because you loved the feeling writing gave you, right? But then maybe along the way you started worrying whether or not the novel was good, or if it was publishable. And suddenly the writing wasn’t so fun anymore. This is your chance to reclaim that feeling and fall back in love with writing.
You can experiment
It’s an opportunity to try something new and different — write a thriller if you usually writer romances (that’s my plan). Write women’s fiction instead of serious literature. Let your creative juices run wild and free and just write. It’s totally nuts to do this anyway, so go ahead and step outside your usual writing box. You may discover you hate writing thrillers — but you also may find that you love it. At the very least, you’ll learn more about yourself and what you are already writing.
It’s satisfying
Few things in life are more satisfying than committing to something and following through on it. We’ve got so many distractions, so many demands on our time it can be difficult to honor our commitments. And one that you make just for the joy of it? Forget it. But you can do NaNoWriMo. And I submit that you’ll love it when you do — if only for the satisfaction of commitment. (But likely for a whole lot more as well.)
Your writing will benefit
To win NaNoWriMo, you’re going to have to write every day, or darn near close. You will need to put words on the page (lots of them) with extreme regularity. This is the best task you could possibly set for your writing self. The act of writing every day will encourage ease and flow in your work. You’ll learn to quit dithering and procrastinating and get to the page. By the end of the month you’ll be a veritable writing machine.
It’s good habit training for you
Finishing NaNoWriMo will instill good habits in you. To accomplish writing 50,000 words in 30 days, you’re going to need to make a habit of writing every day. (See above.) Common wisdom holds that it takes 21 days to establish a habit. You’ve got 30 at your disposal. Your habit of writing will be so entrenched when you finish that you’ll rarely miss a day going forward. (Okay, okay, I exaggerate. But only a little.)
It’s good habit training for family and friends
You’ve got an ironclad excuse to go into your office and close your door: “Sorry, I’ve got to write my 1,666 words.” Once they see the seriousness of your commitment, they’ll honor it. And if you’ve had a hard time with them interrupting you up to now, this is gold. Ditto for your best friend who drags you out for Happy Hour every other day. After you say no to drinks a few times in a row, she’ll get the picture. And maybe she’ll find something useful and creative to do as well.
It just might teach you to write a novel
Starting and finishing a novel is the best way to learn how to write one. Yeah, 50,000 words is short for a novel,(although some romance publishers like that length) and you may have to add more after November 30. But you’ll be far enough along to let the momentum carry you to the end. And then you’ll have bragging rights, not only that you’ve won NaNoWriMo but that you’ve actually finished a novel.
And what could be better than that?
I heartily encourage you to try it — I’m going to do it again this year. Head over to the NaNoWriMo website and sign up if you like. (You can also participate on your own.) They send encouraging emails and it’s fun to communicate with other writers. There are also local “write-ins” at many cities around the country that you can participate in.
Good luck!