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| Photo credit: Junnn on Flickr |
If you’ve already decided you’re going to participate in NaNoWriMo this year, then congratulations (and good luck)! I hope you’ve started preparing, or at least started thinking about preparing, because NaNoWriMo is no small commitment.
But maybe you haven’t decided whether or not you want to participate, and that’s ok, too. This post is for you.
Despite knowing about the event, I didn’t participate for years because November was typically a busy time for me. Being the competitive person that I am, I was scared of starting something that would be too stressful to finish.
But then I participated last year and loved it.
Here’s what’s great about NaNoWriMo:
- It forces you to write consistently. As I’m sure you’ve heard if you’ve done any amount of research on NaNoWriMo, in order to meet the 50,000 word goal at the end of the month, you need to write 1,667 words a day. If you don’t write every day, then you’ll need to write a little more on the days that you do. But the point is, you need to write, and write often if you want to declare yourself a NaNoWriMo winner. And that’s not a bad habit to get into.
- It reminds you it’s ok to write badly. I happen to believe that 95% of first drafts suck. But the point of a first draft isn’t to write something beautiful, it’s just to get the story down so that you can polish it into something fantastic later.
When fast-drafting for NaNoWriMo, you don’t usually have the time to edit as you go. You just need to slap those words down at the speed of light and write. - The writing community is awesome. The writing and publishing community is full of some of the nicest, most understanding and encouraging people out there. During NaNoWriMo, all participates are in it together, which can be great for motivation.
- Pretty graphs. Call me crazy, but watching that word progress graph grow over time is pretty darn satisfying.
- A nice chunk of shiny new words at the end. Regardless of whether or not you reach 50,000 words, you’ll have new pages that didn’t exist at the beginning of the month. And that’s something that should be celebrated.
NaNoWriMo isn’t easy, and there will be days when you’re exhausted and you’ll wish you didn’t sign up. But at the end of the month, when you have a chunk of a new book sitting on your hard drive, you’ll be glad you gave it your best.
Are you participating in NaNoWriMo this year? Why or why not?
Twitter-sized bites:
Undecided about whether or not to participate in #NaNoWriMo? Writer @Ava_Jae shares some reasons to consider it. (Click to tweet)
Are you participating in #NaNoWriMo this year? Join the discussion at @Ava_Jae's blog. (Click to tweet)
I am not participating this year. November is a very busy month for me because we have crammed three full year classes into one semester so I can have time off for Speech and Debate tournaments. Adding one more thing in addtition to everything else is just too stressful.
ReplyDeleteReally tempted to join but I'm already halfway through a WIP. Can you change the word count aim?
ReplyDeleteI'm finally going to do it this year! I think I can actually finish my current WIP before November and I have an idea for once that I feel I can write quickly.
ReplyDeleteI've done it the last three years, I think, but I'm kind of torn this year. I've got an idea brewing, but I don't think it'll be ready to go by November 1st. I'm not much of a planner, but I find my ideas need to percolate for a while before I start writing, otherwise I go round and round in circles!
ReplyDeleteTotally understandable. It's not an easy thing to fit into a really busy schedule, and it requires a commitment to set aside time that can be really difficult in certain situations.
ReplyDeleteActually, I think if you just start counting from day one in November, you could totally still do NaNo. Granted, you won't be considered a "winner" unless you still have 50,000 more words to write, but unless you're trying to win a prize and a badge, that doesn't really matter. The point is to just get words written.
ReplyDeleteAwesome! :D
ReplyDeleteGetting ideas down is definitely important. I'm still not 100% sure I'm going to do it myself—it depends on if I manage to get an idea together in time. But I hope I manage it. :)
ReplyDeleteThen I might just take part! (I've already signed up)
ReplyDeleteFantastic! :)
ReplyDeleteI love the word count chart. Last year I didn't really go through the forums, but if I get an idea ready in time, I'm going to make more of an effort to connect with the NaNo community. I know from non-NaNo events that writing with writers makes the whole experience even more enjoyable. :)
ReplyDeleteI confess, I mostly read the "dirty tricks to reach 50k" threads and shake my head. Though I did post some in the reference desk section last year.
ReplyDeleteI've done NaNo since 2007, but I hadn't planned on doing it this year. There was a lot of negativity in my region last year, and it just sort of sucked the fun out of it. However, I saw the shiny new forums and the fact that there's finally a forum for those of us aiming for more than 50k, and I started talking to people on there, and it was just so much fun that I had to participate. Only 26 more days to figure out exactly what I'm doing! :D
ReplyDeleteDirty tricks to reach 50k? Do I want to know? Heh.
ReplyDeleteOh yay! I'm glad to hear you've changed your mind (although, that's terrible about the negativity, so I'm sorry to hear that. Hopefully you won't run into that again). I also have 25 days to figure out what I'm doing, and I plan to aim for 2k a day, which would bring me to 60k. So we'll see! :D
ReplyDeleteNot if you want a manuscript that's a "real" first draft, horrible or not ;)
ReplyDeleteSome of it is just stuff like "don't use contractions" and "refer to characters by first and last names every time". Other things are "Well, I had to write a paper, so I had it so my character was writing a paper and I included the paper." Or characters with stutters.
Really, the types of things you would have to remove and fix should you ever want to show anybody your NaNoWriMo piece, or try to use it for anything.
So, it's worth a look and some sighing and eye rolling, but that's about it. I feel. ("I statements" are important.)
...that is terrible advice. Wow. Sadly, some people forget that the point of NaNoWriMo isn't to write 50,000 words, it's to get a book started (or finished, depending). It's not going to be the best thing you've ever written, but you don't want to go out of your way to make more work for yourself in the future.
ReplyDeleteAh well. Preaching to the choir. :)
It is terrible advice. Just 50k words of nonsense is not the point of getting the "purple bar".
ReplyDeleteBut yes. Choir here! :D
NaNoWriMo can be a very powerful motivator. I've never participated because the timing usually stinks for me (I'm always mid-project, etc.), but I love seeing all of the enthusiasm for writing it creates every year.
ReplyDeleteAgreed! Seeing how much excitement it drums up within the writing community is wonderful. :)
ReplyDeleteThis will be my fifth year. Looking forward to it, especially as my daughter signed up this year, one CP is doing her second year, and we're working hard on the other CP to jump on board. :)
ReplyDeleteThat's wonderful! Way to recruit extra writers. :)
ReplyDeleteI'm looking forward to it! I'm hoping to finish the WIP I'm currently working on by the end of October, so I can start with something fresh on the 1st.
ReplyDeleteBack to back WIPs! That's awesome. :D Good luck!
ReplyDeleteThanks! You're doing NaNo too, I imagine? Good luck to you as well :)
ReplyDeleteThis will be my fifth NaNo, but my first year doing with high schoolers. I'm volunteering with all the freshman classes at a local high school and I'm a little nervous! It's always been fantastic, but this will be a very different angle on it.
ReplyDeleteAs long as I can get an idea together in time, I plan to! Still brainstorming ideas so far, so we'll see. :)
ReplyDeleteWow! That's so neat that you've got a community NaNo group starting up. And with freshman in high school, no less! Sounds exciting. :)
ReplyDeleteI'm not doing it this year. I tried last year but couldn't make the free time as it was one of my busiest months at work. I did bang out a couple of chapters to a new novel, but I have since revised the plot and I won't be using anything I wrote of that now!
ReplyDeleteTotally understandable. Finding time to make the commitment is one of the hardest parts of NaNoWriMo.
ReplyDeleteWhooo! I'm doing it this year, for the first time since 2008. I'm currently shopping that 2008 novel out to agents--I ended up writing 3 drafts over the past 5 years and only just finished it this summer. I pretty much threw out my nano draft and started over, but I learned so much about what I "really" wanted to do with my stories and who my characters were. It was my "child's draft" as Anne Lamott might say :)
ReplyDeleteThat's fantastic, Wendy! Congratulations on completing our novel and I wish you all the best with submissions! It's good to see that you were able to make good use of a draft, even if you mostly tossed it. :)
ReplyDeleteAnd good luck in November!
I'm taking the challenge this year and am determined to cross the line with all those words ticked under my belt. Tried it a few years ago and failed half way through - didn't have an outline or any idea where I was headed and ran out if steam. Not this year! Good luck to everyone taking part!
ReplyDeleteChristine
Perchedontheedge.wordpress.com
That's fantastic! Outlines definitely help, particularly when fast drafting as in a NaNo situation. Good luck!
ReplyDeleteLove love love NaNo! 45,000 words in so far (goal of 100,000). WIP is coming together.
ReplyDeleteThat's fantastic!! Keep up the great work and good luck! :D
ReplyDelete