Happy almost NaNoWriMo to all who celebrate
National Novel Writing Month (November) approaches--You in?
I just barely started Matt Bell’s book Refuse to be Done: How to Write and Rewrite a Novel in Three Drafts, which has been widely praised by pretty much all the writers I follow and has been on my to-read list since it came out in March.
On the opening page, Bell writes:
“No matter what phase in the process you’re in when you read this page—whether you’re already laboring on your novel, whether you’ve not yet written a word—I implore you to continually affirm that you are writing a novel, that you are writing a book. Don’t diminish, don’t equivocate, don’t find some way to keep from claiming the work. If only to yourself, if only in the tiniest whisper, say it: I am writing a novel.”
Anyway, I’ve already made mention of the fact that I am planning to write a novel, that I have been doing research to prepare for writing a novel, and I’ll go ahead and admit here and now: I have even typed a few words (which I later deleted). But reading that brief opening passage right before National Novel Writing Month begins feels like a healthy bit of kismet.
And then DuoLingo had its own little mean-spirited nudge this morning:
Replace “paper” with “blank Word document” and: Same. Sigh.
Some of you probably already know about NaNoWriMo, but I don’t think everyone does, so real quick: what is NaNoWriMo?
It’s a nonprofit organization founded in 1999 dedicated to encouraging people to write stuff:
“Our programs now include National Novel Writing Month in November, Camp NaNoWriMo in April and July, and the ‘Now What?’ Months in January and February, plus the Young Writers Program for kids, teens, teachers, and families, the Come Write In program for libraries, bookstores, and community spaces, and the Municipal Liaison program for local volunteers.”
Basically, you can go to https://nanowrimo.org/ to sign up for any or all of these programs, create a project (for November it’s technically supposed to be a novel, but I mean, who will know?), choose your specific program (or make your own goals and timeline if that seems like overly much pressure or you’re the rebellious type), track your progress, get materials and encouragement, make connections, etc.
And of course it’s not limited to people who claim to be writers, people who have MFAs or books published already. As the “About” section of the website says:
“[Hundreds of thousands of people] enter the month as elementary school teachers, mechanics, or stay-at-home parents. They leave novelists.”
And just in case you’re interested, here’s an FAQ with more info. So anyway, that’s the quick version.
Specifically for November, the goal is to write 50,000 words of a novel, which is on the shorter side (The Great Gatsby-ish, as they note in the above FAQ), but pretty damn impressive for one month’s worth of writing (1,667 words per day, roughly). If you complete NaNoWriMo, and mark your progress on the site above 50,000, then you get a badge and “goodies.” What does that mean? I have no idea, because I’ve never successfully completed it!
You don’t have to finish the novel in 50,000 words, necessarily, nor does it need to be a polished publishable masterpiece. The goal is to get words down, to do enough to make it feel like a real and concrete fact. Even if you haven’t finished, just by getting that far in, you can give it to yourself: you’ve written a novel; you’ve written a book.
And then of course comes the work of revision. Or, as Matt “Three Drafts” Bell would have it: revisions, plural.
Or, you can just try your best, as the Michaels of years past have done, and successfully fail. Which is its own sweet, righteous feeling.
Or push through to 50,000 unbearable words and burn it, or throw the thing into a drawer or hidden folder to maybe return to it in a decade or so. At that point, you’ve got worlds in your oysters (or something).
ANYWAY, let’s not get needlessly pessimistic before November ever starts.
I had already planned, vaguely, to participate in NaNoWriMo this year and had told my writing group that I planned to participate, but in honor of Matt Bell and his already encouraging book (which I will be reading as I trundle through my latest NaNoWriMo attempt, and which you will probably be able to read more about in my November newsletter), I guess I’ll put it in writing here as well:
I am writing a novel. I am writing a book. I guess in the next 32 days or so? Whew, buddy…
Any of y’all want to join?