I’ve been asked by a couple of folks if I’m taking part in November’s NaNoWriMo. (National Novel Writing Month, for those new to the term.) This is where your goal is to write the first draft of a novel in thirty days. Seems like a rough chore, but the idea is to make you push past all the distractions, the excuses, the inner editor and whatever else slows your writing process down and do nothing else but write, write, write.
Here’s an interview with Chris Baty, the founder of NaNoWriMo, who talks about how the whole thing got started, authors who have gotten published through the event, and tips for actually getting that novel done in such a limited timeline.
Anyways, I haven’t done it before, nor do I plan to in the near future. Not because I don’t like it. In fact, I think it is a great motivation for folks and can be a lot of fun, especially for those who have had a hard time applying butt-to-chair principles and find their writing habits suffering because of it. Thing with me is that I usually am already wrapped up in a writing project whenever the month comes around. Either I’m in the middle of a draft, or I’m revising, worldbuilding, or whatever. I’ve never had a huge problem making myself sit down and purge the words, and so if I did take the time to get involved with NaNoWriMo it’d likely be distracting from another work-in-progress. If I ever have a hard time in the future with some form of writer’s block, then I certainly wouldn’t be adverse to taking part.
What about you all? Anyone try the month deadline before? Success stories? Would you do it again?
I see that smile.
I actually decided to participate for the first time this year, and hit my word goal yesterday.
In all fairness I’ve had the last week off, and that helped considerably.
For me, it really was a matter of doing NaNoWriMo or never getting my novel down on paper. But it is amazing how once you get going it can just flow out.
For any other potential commenters, a really great quote I read on Wil Wheaton’s blog that got me going was “It’s easier to fix a broken scene than fill an empty page”. That really sums up what NaNoWriMo is all about to me.