October 27, 2010
What is that crazy word, you ask? It stands for NAtional NOvel WRIting MOnth and I will be participating this year. Miranda turned me on to this last year and after some thought, I decided to participate this year. The very first thing on the list of things to do before you die is “Write a Best Seller” (which I downgraded to ”Write a Novel”). I’ve got 30 days to write 175 pages; that’s 1,667 words a day. Luckily, I’m rather verbose (if you haven’t noticed from the length of these posts!)
The thing I like best about NaNoWriMo is that by trying to write a novel in one month, you’re “forced” to just get the words on the paper, rather than worry about whether it makes sense or its grammatically correct.
I’ve signed up and I’m ready to write. And these are the tips I received from NaNoWriMo for things to keep in mind for November:
1) It’s okay to not know what you’re doing. Really. You’ve read a lot of novels, so you’re completely up to the challenge of writing one. If you feel more comfortable outlining your story ahead of time, do so. But it’s also fine to just wing it. Write every day, and a book-worthy story will appear, even if you’re not sure what that story might be right now.
2) Do not edit as you go. Editing is for December. Think of November as an experiment in pure output. Even if it’s hard at first, leave ugly prose and poorly written passages on the page to be cleaned up later. Your inner editor will be very grumpy about this, but your inner editor is a nitpicky jerk who foolishly believes that it is possible to write a brilliant first draft if you write it slowly enough. It isn’t. Every book you’ve ever loved started out as a beautifully flawed first draft. In November, embrace imperfection and see where it takes you.
3) Tell everyone you know that you’re writing a novel in November. This will pay big dividends in Week Two, when the only thing keeping you from quitting is the fear of looking pathetic in front of all the people who’ve had to hear about your novel for the past month. Seriously. Email them now about your awesome new book. The looming specter of personal humiliation is a very reliable muse.
3.5) There will be times you’ll want to quit during November. This is okay. Everyone who wins NaNoWriMo wanted to quit at some point in November. Stick it out. See it through. Week Two can be hard. Week Three is much better. Week Four will make you want to yodel.
And we’re talking the good kind of yodeling here.
So other than that whole marathon I’ll be running in November, I’ll also be working on a 50,000 WORD marathon. Forgive me in advance for the “fluff” posts I’ve already scheduled to post throughout the month. I need to save all of my creative juices for the novel!
Anyone else joining in for a month of tired fingers and cramped necks?
I’ll be joining as you know. Good luck with it and hopefully we can both ‘win’!
I’m really excited to do this and to accomplish this! There’s a real active group near me with bookstores and groups that I hope to join too.
Yay us!
I’m definitely going to try, but with the Marathon in the middle of the month, I’m going to have work overtime some weekends! 2,000 words a day is LOT!
Count me in! I love to write but I only set aside the time while on Summer Vacation or Winter Break.