by Lajk (Tue Jan 05, 2010)
November used to be a month of winding down; an in-between
time that took you from autumn, Halloween and Guy Fawkes' Night to Christmas. A
time to catch your breath and save your money and your energy for the big
Christmas rush.
Until NaNoWriMo, that is.
NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month, began in the US
but is now a world-wide phenomenon, complete with websites, forums, virtual and
real-life meetings, advice books, merchandise and other forms of support and
rewards. Rewards, yes, because the NaNoWriMo is a challenge, and not one to be
taken lightly. The goal is to write a novel-length piece of work (usually
fiction, but it doesn't have to be) comprising 50,000 words, within the month
of November. You can plan in advance, create your characters and your world,
but ideally you should not start writing until November. A minimum of 50,000 in
30 days. This equates to 1,667 words a day. Every day. You are supported by an
on-line community with whom you can
share ideas and thoughts, give and take writing and character prompts, and play games when you're stuck or
procrastinating. The help from this community means you also gain cheerleaders
when you pass small milestones.
I thought this was a brilliant, inspiring, creative,
motivational idea, and so, five years ago, I waded in and decided to give it a
try myself. I managed around 10,000 words over the 30 days. Half a decade later
the novel is up to around 27,000 words, but I'm determined to finish it one
day. The following year I only wrote around 7,000 words and that piece has only
had a couple of thousand words added to it since. So, deciding I wasn't really
cut out for NaNoWriMo, I didn't even consider attempting it the next few years.
Until this year. I had no idea, not even a vague suggestion
of characters, but wandering back on the NaNoWriMo website and seeing the wonderful
on-line community, I was drawn into the challenge and the creativity. I was
buzzing, and inspired. I wanted to write
50,000 words in 30 days. So, ignoring the little voice in the back of my head
that was reminding me of family visits and poems needing to be edited, I signed
up once more.
Before you ask, I didn't complete the challenge this time
either. But I now have another 10,000 words I didn't have in October, and I had
fun trying a different style of writing - steam punk - that I hadn't attempted
previously. And this, I have realised, is part of the appeal. It's having a go.
It's trying something big and scary, and new. Part of me knew I would never
finish NaNoWriMo, but I had great fun just sitting down and writing. I didn't
worry about plans, editing or even finishing. I just wrote. It was liberating and
it got me writing creative prose in a way that I hadn't focused on for quite
some time.
In addition, I stumbled upon a NaNoWriMo community on
Twitter. This is yet another medium of support and advice. What particularly
interested me, though, was someone's idea of an actual 'nano' writing month.
Nano as in ‘very, very small.' The suggestion, therefore, was to write a
'tweet' everyday and build up a story on Twitter during the month. 140
characters a day, 1400 characters over the 30 days. It was a completely
different kind of challenge. Less time consuming in some ways, but more
precise. Choosing the right words, like in poetry. Creating a whole story in so
few words. This is also known as flash-fiction - something I'd also only tried
a handful of times. So, I signed up to this too. And I actually completed it. A
tweet a day, a vague storyline, and some character development. It even had a
beginning, middle and an end. It may not be the best thing I've ever written.
But it too was fun, and gave me a sense of accomplishment. I will definitely
attempt it again in 2010.
As for NaNoWriMo itself I would recommend it to anyone. If
you're a novel-length writer, it's a worthy and helpful challenge and tool, but
if the idea of writing a 'novel' or even anywhere near 50,000 words is too
scary, then I would still suggest joining it. You can learn a lot about the process,
meet helpful and interesting people, and, ok, so you may not write 50,000
words, but you may end up with a few thousand words you didn't have the
previous month, and surely that's a good thing.
