by Marla White
November is right around the corner and that means National Novel Writing Month. Shortened to NaNoWriMo (Google it, it’s a cool story as to how it came about), this month long creative writing project connects writers of all shapes and sizes via a website where everyone’s goal is to write 50,000 words in the month of November.
I heard about it from CJ Bahr for a few years but hemmed and hawed in joining the fun. First off, do the math – 50,000 words works out to be 1,666 words a day. Aside from the ominous “666” at the end, that’s a lot of words! Plus I kept thinking, ‘couldn’t they pick a month with 31 days? Or at least one where you don’t lose two days to a turkey induced coma?’ Besides, I was doing ok writing on my own; after all, I got my first novel finished in the lightening fast speed of 10 years. Yes, that realization is what pushed me to finally sign up.
You know what? I did it. I got the 50,000 words needed to “win” NaNoWriMo last year and went on to finish the whole book six months later. So roughly 10 times faster than my first book and, honestly, it’s a lot better book if I do say so myself.
So how did NaNoWriMo help me?
So how did NaNoWriMo help me?
1) Everybody works better with a deadline. I don’t care who you are or what you’re trying to accomplish, I’ve never met a person who didn’t work better/smarter/more efficiently with a clearly defined goal. Knowing I had to write almost 2,000 words a day, I knew I’d never be able to squeeze that in at the office between phone calls or at lunch between bites, so I got up 45 minutes earlier to dedicate time first thing in the morning to write. For me it meant getting up at 5:30 in the morning, or stupid o’clock as I like to call it, and head straight to the computer still in my jammies to focus on my book.
The cool thing? Even though I didn’t have to turn in a certain word count anymore come Dec. 1, getting up at 5:30 had become a habit for me, I keep up (mostly) to this day. That’s how I finished the other 130,000 words needed to complete my novel and have continued to chug on to book number 2.
The cool thing? Even though I didn’t have to turn in a certain word count anymore come Dec. 1, getting up at 5:30 had become a habit for me, I keep up (mostly) to this day. That’s how I finished the other 130,000 words needed to complete my novel and have continued to chug on to book number 2.
2) There’s no time to nit pick. When you have to churn out so many words in a day, there’s no time to gaze at your navel and ponder if imminent or eminent is the perfect word you’re looking for. There’s no time to stop and do research, and there’s no way I’m going to delete a single precious word I’ve put down! In the long run, living with the characters and story most every day also made the novel tighter and richer than my previous hit or miss method of writing once every 6 months or so.
NaNoWriMo got me out of the habit of thinking every word and phrase had to be perfect before I committed it to computer – it doesn’t! Think of the other 11 months of the year as National Re-Write Month or NaNoReWri. (Ok, I’ll admit it, I’m still working on that one… )
Which brings up the age-old question – are you a seat of the pants kind of writer or an outliner? Guess what – doesn’t matter. You can outline ahead of time or hit the ground running on November 1, whatever floats your creative mojo. The important thing is to just write!
NaNoWriMo got me out of the habit of thinking every word and phrase had to be perfect before I committed it to computer – it doesn’t! Think of the other 11 months of the year as National Re-Write Month or NaNoReWri. (Ok, I’ll admit it, I’m still working on that one… )
Which brings up the age-old question – are you a seat of the pants kind of writer or an outliner? Guess what – doesn’t matter. You can outline ahead of time or hit the ground running on November 1, whatever floats your creative mojo. The important thing is to just write!
3) It doesn’t take a village to write a book, but it’s nice to have company. If you join the NaNoWriMo website, you get the benefit of advice not just from big time authors who will weigh in with advice from time to time, you also get your fellow WriMonians (you’re welcome) to encourage you along the way. You can meet up in in person at local get-togethers or on-line, whatever works for you. I’ll admit it; the community aspect isn’t something I’ve taken advantage of as much as I’d like. Did I mention I write at 5:30 in the morning? Not feeling much like chatting before the coffee kicks in, BUT even without joining a group just seeing other people racking up the numbers and badges kicked in the competitive part of me and kept me writing.
So whether you get a bigger group of writing buddies than there are Be-leibers in the world, or you just get a couple of your actual physical friends to join in the fun, you’ll be inspired, encouraged and surprised at how much more you enjoy the angst of writing.
So whether you get a bigger group of writing buddies than there are Be-leibers in the world, or you just get a couple of your actual physical friends to join in the fun, you’ll be inspired, encouraged and surprised at how much more you enjoy the angst of writing.
Stop procrastinating, quit thinking up reasons not to do it and just start typing! Worst thing that can happen is you don’t make the 50,000-word goal, but at least you’ll be farther along on your novel than you are right now.
