NaNoWriMo: Annual Writing Event
National Novel Writing Month: Contest for Aspiring Novel Writers
National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo, has become an annual event for writers around the world. But is the contest good or bad for aspiring novelists?
Every November, tens of thousands of would-be novelists take up the challenge of National Novel Writing Month, also known as NaNoWriMo. But is it a good thing for writers, or simply a silly gimmick that has taken on a life of its own?
The premise of National Novel Writing Month is simple: to write a 50,000-word novel in 30 days. San Francisco writer Chris Baty founded the contest in 1999 with 21 participants. On the contest website he says it was partly to have something to do and partly as a way to get dates. By 2006, over 79,000 people participated, with 13,000 completing 50,000 words in 30 days.
The rules of the "contest" are simple. During the month of November, you write a 50,000-word novel; this is 1667 words per day, or roughly 175 pages. You must start from scratch, and you cannot edit any of what you write before you finish; Baty says if you do not silence your inner editor, a legion of guilt monkeys will descend upon you. The goal is to fight your way through to the end, regardless of how horrible most of the book will be. When you have finished this rough draft, you can either go back and edit what you wrote, or just be satisfied that you have actually written a novel. Everyone who reaches the 50,000-word mark is deemed a winner.
As with any writing class (and the contest is essentially a hands-on class on speed novel writing), there are benefits and drawbacks to NaNoWriMo. Writing a novel is a monumental task, especially if you have never gotten beyond page five in spite of years of trying. Having a daily word-count goal breaks the process down to a more manageable size. Refusing to edit as you write the first draft allows creativity to run amok, whereas re-working the same sentence on page one 50 times will kill creativity in a heartbeat.
It is also a great encouragement to know that thousands of other people around the world are writing at the same time you are. For some, simply writing 50,000 words is enough, no matter how bad the plot, dialogue, and overall quality may be. And therein lies the one possible problem with NaNoWriMo.
There are people who have taken part in nearly every National Novel Writing Month contest since 1999. For many, it is a month-long excuse to meet friends at Starbucks while pretending to hammer out a few hundred words. For some it’s exactly what Chris Baty originally envisioned: a way to meet girls.
The danger is that for those who do take it seriously, the adrenaline of the speed-writing format can be so addictive, and the camaraderie so strong, that they cannot write any time except November. It’s a great way to get past your first novel-length piece of fiction or to jump start you if you’re blocked, but writing is something that’s meant to be done every day. It’s a way of life, not something done on a seasonal schedule like duck hunting.
Simply as a writing exercise, NaNoWriMo is something every writer should do once. But it is only a starting point, not a destination itself. If you’re trying to finish a novel for the first time and need a push, it’s not a bad route to go. Just don’t stop there.
