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EVERY NOVEMBER, a large group of people (there were more than 100,000 in 2007) who have signed up with NaNoWriMo begin writing with the goal of completing a 50,000 word novel in 30 days. The program website states:
Valuing enthusiasm and perseverance over painstaking craft, NaNoWriMo is a novel-writing program for everyone who has thought fleetingly about writing a novel but has been scared away by the time and effort involved.
Because of the limited writing window, the ONLY thing that matters in NaNoWriMo is output. It’s all about quantity, not quality. The kamikaze approach forces you to lower your expectations, take risks, and write on the fly.
Make no mistake: You will be writing a lot of crap. And that’s a good thing. By forcing yourself to write so intensely, you are giving yourself permission to make mistakes. To forgo the endless tweaking and editing and just create. To build without tearing down.
It would be easy to make fun of this if I didn’t think it would actually be kind of fun to try (if I had time), and I didn’t believe there were benefits to just ‘dump it all out’ style writing where you don’t think but just type.
Questions:
*Has anyone at Matador or from elsewhere participated at NaNoWrMo? What was your experience?
*Is anyone interested in trying this year?
*What benefits are there to just sitting down and ‘freewriting’?
Please give your answers in the comments section below.
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For more info on NaNoWriMo, check their site here.
David Miller
David Miller is Senior Editor of Matador (winner of 2010 and 2011 Lowell Thomas awards for travel journalism) and Director of Curricula at MatadorU. Follow him @dahveed_miller.
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I haven’t done this, but I used to use fotolog.net/elasticfate for free-writing when I worked at Sony. My job wasn’t very stimulating, so to combat that, I devoted 15 minutes a day to writing straight off the top of my head & letting it flow out. They only gave you 15 minutes to edit before it became a permanent post, and I found that very useful to just getting things out.
I also really love that part in Anne Lamot’s ‘Bird By Bird’ where she talks about writing really, really shitty drafts. It’s very helpful.
October has been research month for my new novel. November’s NaNoWriMo will be a way to get the rough draft done quickly. Once I complete it, I’ll have a proposal ready for my publisher and the guts of a novel in the computer. I shoot for 1,000 words a day during my normal writing schedule. Some days I can’t polish that much work and other days I exceed that. My last novel was over 100,000 words so the NaNoWriMo goal of 50,000 will be a great start. If I’m not doing polished work I should be able to reach that goal. By the end of Nov. I hope to have a contract on the one at the publishers and a rough draft to offer them for the next one.
I did it last year, and I managed to only drop one major plot point (resulting in a plot hole made glaringly obvious by the title’s reference to the missing point) and write one day of Fourth-Wall-less drivel (Breaking the Fourth Wall= you snap, and you start typing dialog between yourself and the characters). I got the 50K, but barely. (50181 words at 11:45 on November 30). What do you call the guy who graduates last in his class at med school? Doctor.
Anyway, I’m definitely going at it again, and aiming for a repeat performance, but as of now I don’t have any sort of idea I really want to write. I just read an article about a cruise, so now I sorta want to write about a cruise ship. But in the past two weeks, I’ve also “committed” to writing a road trip, a romance between Father Time’s son Liam and a human, and the romance between the angel and devil that show up on your shoulders all the time. So, yeah.
I’ve been doing NaNoWriMo since 2004, every year. I’ve won twice–this past year, and in 2004. I’m definitely planning on doing it this year, and have spent the last few days getting my ideas together. I love NaNo–the feeling of accomplishment after writing 50,000 words is just awesome. My idea this year involves a dragon-filled one way spaceflight and a farm boy with dreams. Don’t ask, it’s going to be silly.
I haven’t quite figured out how I’m going to manage NaNo AND MatadorU AND my job AND my class AND my physical therapy, but, what the heck. I’m sure it’ll all work out in the end!
I’m planning to take part this year. I have an idea that I haven’t been able to work on. Am hoping this will help me stick to a schedule and get a first draft out.
The great comments on this site have spurred me on. I’ve just completed a rough draft of a fantasy novel using Karen Wiesner’s, Rough Draft in 30 Days, so I even have something to write. Although I’m shooting for 100,000 words as a final product, 50,000 in a month should give me a good feel for the characters and help to identify any plot holes. May we all feed off each other’s energy!
I want to… but that’s just so much! Maybe I will set a different , personal goal
This is my 6th year to do NANOWRIMO. Only one year did I not complete 50k words, and a few years more than that.
I found it liberating to be able to shut down the editor in my head for 30 days and just write what came into my head. Because of it, I have 3 completed first draft novels, and one that went past 50k and isn’t quite finished. I’m in the process of editing two of those novels, and have plans to self publish one of the sometime in the next year or so if all goes well.
It takes a level of commitment that can be tough… but that’s part of the crazy fun of it. There is a huge support network, and in my town there are write-ins where folks come together at a specified location to write for a specific amount of time. There’s lots of laughter, there are games to get more words on the page, there’s a lot of silence with keys clacking. One of our write-in last weekend was at the Parthenon – very, very cool!
I’m very behind right now on my word count as I post this comment – and it’s going to be a struggle to get caught up! The struggle will be worth it at the end, when I post 50k or more words and “win”!