For the uninitiated, it’s National Novel Writing Month, an annual event among writers and wannabees that’s about writing a 50,000 word novel in thirty days. The math works out to 1,666 words per day.
I’ve done this project twice, once in 2005 with my two sons and once again about five or six years ago with a St. Joseph friend. Both times were challenging, because the word count haunts you. Skip a day, fall behind, you can lose momentum. At the same time, it’s exhilarating to have written the first draft of a novel in such a short amount of time. I know because I’ve written two other novels that have taken me years.
NaNoWriMo was created in 1999 by Chris Baty in the San Francisco area. Since then it’s morphed into a fall ritual among writers around the world. There is a website and a ton of information on social media about how to join the group and stay motivated.
One of the most beneficial tips is that this is about quantity over quality. So it isn’t about perfect prose or elegant editing. In fact, Baty, who’s written a book on the phenomenon, recommends that you never look back at what you wrote the day before. You don’t try to eliminate inconsistencies or accidental changes in tense or even plot discrepancies. You just write.
In a small way I try to do this with my blogs. I write what comes to mind for a few minutes and then return to edit the material before going “live.” I didn’t think about it until now, but perhaps I have NaNoWriMo to thank for the past eleven years.
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