NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month)

NaNoWriMo starts this Friday at 12:01 a.m., I believe. Technically, it's early Saturday, November 1. For those of you who are not familiar with the concept, it's a bunch of writers who get together (online) and vow to write 50,000 words by the end of November. It works out to about 1,500 - 2,000 words per day. If you assume 300 words per page, it's about five or six pages (in standard manuscript formatting i.e. double space, one inch margins, etc.) per day.

 

I've never participated in NaNoWriMo before. I told myself it was because I didn't need to. I had the motivation to write. And I do. However, I also spend massive amounts of time wallowing in indecision, trying to work through road blocks, eight different ways to Sunday before finally landing on an approach. With NaNoWriMo, you don't have that luxury. I think that restriction might be helpful.

 

Generally speaking, my best experience has been the time I did not allow myself to get "stuck." For the Ghost and the Goth, when I ran into a scene where I didn't know what happened, I forced myself to jump ahead to the next scene I saw in my head.

 

NaNoWriMo works with my natural tendency to write a rough first draft, albeit the pace is a little faster than what I'm used to. When I'm into a book, I usually write at least a page every day and then three or four pages on Saturday and Sunday. But I can usually get a first draft done in three months, and if I push it, I can get it up to final draft state in another month. So, clearly some days I'm writing more than my goal.

 

So, why, Stacey, the reluctance I hear/read in your voice?

 

I don't know. I've never done this before, written to a specific deadline. However, I know that will be part of my future. I think one of the reasons Linnea is so darn prolific is she's used to writing under deadline, thanks to her years as a journalist.  (And yes, I did spend the better part of a decade as a corporate copywriter, but it's way easier to churn out stuff when your name isn't going to be on it.)

 

I'm worried that trying to write so quickly will force me to churn out a pile of crap. And yet, that is the point of Anne Lamott's advice, "Write a sh*tty first draft." The point being that if you free yourself up, you'll discover things you might never have found otherwise and at least at the end you'll have something to work with rather than a blank screen. To paraphrase Edison, I'll have found at least one way NOT to write that particular story.

 

The obssessive compulsive side of me (oh, yes, shocking, I know...) is freaking out about not making the deadline. 50,000 words in 30 days. There is no prize or anything. It's just about reaching the goal. And I'm never that tough on myself about goals because they have to be flexible and realistic for life. But I DO not like failing. Period.

 

And yet, conversely, that very thing would be what motivates me to keep writing even when I really want to go watch a re-run of Family Guy.

 

Hmmm.

 

Still thinking about it. Anyone else out there participating in NaNoWriMo?