I didn’t take part in NaNoWriMo this year, mainly because I was focused on story revisions, but I know several people who did and have at least been mildly successful. As this month enters its final week, here’s a chance to take a step back and see your developing WriMo novel in a fresh perspective.
101 Reasons to Stop Writing presents a list of Top Ten Reasons Your NaNoWriMo Novel Sucks.
- You hadn’t even thought about writing fiction until October 30.
- You finish each writing session by typing “I’m going to bed now, see you later.”
- You read over yesterday’s output and discover you’ve typed, verbatim, an argument with your spouse about how the time spent writing is impacting your personal hygiene.
- You left the datestamps in when you cut and pasted all your blog entries.
- You left the datestamps in when you cut and pasted the entire NaNo forum thread about padding.
- It’s a powerful, moving story exploring the inner turmoil of a copyrighted character.
- It’s a powerful, moving story exploring the inner turmoil of two or more copyrighted characters who secretly love each other very much, and often.
- You’ve only managed an average of 500 words per day so far, and 100 of them are about how hard it is to write 1,667 words a day.
- Every 1,667th word is “CHAPTER”.
- The 49,999th and 50,000th words are “THE END”, even though the 49,998th word is “and”.
I see that smile.