For anyone who maybe doesn’t know about NaNoWriMo, it stands for National Novel Writing Month. It happens every November. The challenge is to write 50,000 words in 30 days.
As with anything in this crazy world, it has rabid supporters and adamant detractors. On the one hand, who wouldn’t be proud of completing a challenge like that? On the other hand, what kind of quality can really be expected when quantity is the only benchmark?
I’ve been a NaNoWriMo voyeur for a long time and in 2016, I participated successfully for the first time (that’s my progress chart in the image above). After much deliberation, I think I’m going to take the plunge again this year. I have an idea cooking for novel #3 and this seems like a good way to get a solid start.
Arguments For NaNoWriMo
Pro: More Words Written
Even if you fail to hit 50,000 words, you will write and odds are, you will write much more than you will if you don’t attempt the challenge. That’s a win.
Pro: Community
It feels like a club. You can go to in-person meet-ups, or you can use the hashtag #NaNoWriMo on Twitter and meet all kinds of people all over the world who are right there with you the whole way.
Pro: Encouragement
In addition to the people (strangers, even) who will cheer you along, you will enter your word count every day and watch the little chart on the NaNoWriMo page grow. It is surprisingly satisfying.
Pro: Quiet Your Inner Critic
You will be writing too fast for your inner critic to get a word in edgewise. If you’re like most writers, you won’t be quitting your day job or passing you kids off for an entire month, so you’ll have to squeeze that writing in and do it fast, which is great for shutting up that little voice of doubt. Stupid voice.
Arguments Against NaNoWriMo
Con: You will not end up with a finished book.
Never mind that 50,000 words is not long enough for a commercial novel, what you have at the end of November will be a draft. Don’t fool yourself, it will need work, a lot of work.
Con: Bad Timing
November can be a tough month to put your writing first, especially for the parents out there. My kids don’t have school the whole week of Thanksgiving (WTF?). Family comes to town. You know how it goes.
Con: What if You’re Mid-Project?
The format of NaNoWriMo doesn’t really lend itself to those of us editing an existing project. As a result, I feel like NaNoWriMo encourages us to keep starting projects without ever getting any of them across the finish line.
Con: It’s hard.
I debated whether this was actually a con. I could also argue it as a pro – since pushing past what’s comfortable is always a good exercise. But ultimately, writing is hard enough. We don’t need additional pressure, self-imposed or not.
So tell me: are you doing NaNoWriMo this year? Have you done it in the past? If you do it every year, do you have a pile of unfinished manuscripts? Drop some knowledge.
There seems to be a good push this year to do #NaMoWriMo (https://twitter.com/schinji), National MORE Writing Month. I’m more of a mind to write a flash fiction novella, and in those, density and craft are far more necessary than the word-count. So, NaMoWriMo can help keep me writing every day and being in a supportive community of writers.
Totally! Because even at 50k words, it’s not a novel. It really should be called NaMoWriMo. And I’m definitely writing more. Hope it’s going well for you too. Cheers!
I will be giving it a go for the first time. I’ve had a murder mystery rattling around in my head for around 38 years and it’s time to get out of my head! I know it won’t be a finished novel but it will be on paper!! (Or at least in Scrivener….)
Good for you Marcea! Good luck with it!
This will be my tenth year,
Won none times.
Contemplated finishing my “novel” from 3 years ago (want it to become an 100k+ one)
But don’t want to rush write, and I’m using nano now to develop my skills in other genres then just “police procedural”
I’ve heard a lot of people modifying the challenge to fit where they’re at with their projects. Good luck with it!
April, I’ve been competing in NaNoWriMo for a number of years. Have I completed the challenge every year? Heck no! Some years are bad and I have to stop after 1 week. But I try, and that’s the whole point for me. I have “won” 3 times, and those 3 times are what keep me coming back every year. Yes, I also have a large number of unfinished pieces. That’s the next personal goal – to get them finished. And I am going to try again this year as well. My fingers are crossed that I can cross the line by November 30.
Michelle, I LOVE your take on this. It makes me want to give it a shot, even though I wasn’t planning to. Yes, even if you we don’t “win” we still get busy writing, and that’s always time well spent. But then there’s a the challenge of actually finishing something. I wish there was some way to set up a month-long challenge for that part. Good luck! I hope you make it across the finish line this year.
I’ve done it a few times, “won” once (I also did Camp NaNoWriMo once, which I think was in April, and won that). I agree on all the “pros”, the community and encouragement were wonderful. Also it got me more disciplined to write more consistently beyond November. But, it is bad timing that month with the Thanksgiving holiday. I lose a week to cooking and cleaning. And yes, I have unfinished projects that I wrote just for NaNo that I will likely never get back to. This year I’ve just started a new job so I don’t expect to have the energy left over at the end of the work day to crank out the words.
On the whole I think it’s a great experience, but I can’t always set aside time to start something new. I haven’t participated in a few years now. I do sort of miss it.
Agreed, on all fronts. It is a great experience, but there are so many factors to consider. Good luck with the new job!
I have yet to do the Nano. Every year I promise this will be the year and I always find excuses. I’m knee deep with my current work so fingers crossed for next year.
The timing has to be right, or else it’s just extra stress. I’m skipping it this year too. Fingers crossed for next year here too.