My NaNoWriMo Adventure: 30 Days and 30,000 Words

It’s November, and that means that we have entered into the holiday season, ready or not. We’ve just gotten candied out a few days ago and Thanksgiving will be here before you know it. Don’t even get me started on Christmas. Plus, my father’s birthday is days before Thanksgiving on the 20th, my birthday is on December 13th and both my mother and brother have January birthdays, the 26th and 19th respectively. My sister is the weirdo with a Spring birthday in May.

And yet, for the writer in me, November is thirty days of craziness known as National Novel Writing Month, aka NaNoWriMo, a mad dash to hammer out the first draft of a novel by writing 50,000 words in a month. Don’t get started on with me on if that’s a novel or a novella. That point has been argued by people who care. I don’t. The point of trying to throw down so many words onto paper is to get out of your own way. Also keep in mind, its’ a first draft. There will be, by design, typos, gaps and story inconsistencies. That’s okay. This is about word count only. Writers know that the next step, the bigger step, is to revise it. But even if you don’t, no one can take those 50,000 words away from you.

Here’s how it works, for those who have no idea what I’m even talking about. First, you set up an account at nanowrimo.org. Next, you create a new book. Don’t worry if you only have a working title and a general idea. That’s all you need. The goal for all participants is to get to that certificate that proves you wrote 50,000 words. How do you do that? The same way you do most things, one day at a time. In this case it works out to 1,667 words each day. That’s not an unmanageable number, but it’s not nothing. Count on 1-3 hours daily to get there. Next you add your daily total in to your NaNo site at the end of each day. There is a lovely line graph and it’s nice to see it go up as you keep writing. It’s all on the honor system until the end. On one of the last days of November, the official counter goes live and you can put your manuscript through for verification. Winners get that certificate, bragging rights and the first draft of a book. There are also online forums for each genre and weekly gathering in most cities for support along the way. If you’ve never tried it, you really should.

My goals this year 1000 words a day (as part of the previously stated 1000 words in 1000 days project). That means my goal this time around is to write 30,000 words. My secondary goal is to revise 2 hours for 3 days a week. That has been the harder one to keep. Oh, and that doesn’t include blog posts.

Yeah, It’s November!