OtherWor(l)ds

NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) is a time when some writers (also known as crazy people) attempt to write an entire 50,000 word novel in one month. That month is November. Forget about working the day job overtime during November so that you can afford those fancy Christmas presents. You’re a writer. It’s time to churn out a bunch of words instead. While 50,000 words add up to a short novel (I think E.M. Forster may have placed the cutoff point between the novel and the short story at 50,000 words), it is certainly no easy feat to finish all those words in one month. When I talk to people who were able to pull it off or who heard of others who have pulled it off they tell me things like, “it was a jumbled mess,” “it was a mad rush to finish it,” or “I’m not sure if I actually finished it.” Well, they may not have worded it exactly like that but it’s close enough. The point is that it is hard to finish a NaNoWriMo novel. It seems much more realistic and sensible to take more than one month to finish a 50,000 word plus project. Add in research–preliminary, spot, etc.–for the novel, and things become much more complex and time consuming. And we aren’t even talking about writing as an entire process yet. I may be wrong, but NaNoWriMo just takes you through the rough draft. At some point we need to revise and edit our messes.

Usually when NaNoWriMo rolls around I’m not ready for it. It sneaks up on me. I have a feeling akin to being awakened suddenly in the night, shaken, and told I have 50,000 words to produce by the end of the month or else. I remember having a conversation about how November is the worst month to do it in. Heck, it is right before Christmas. I’m too busy and want to put off that 50,000 word writing fest for another month. The year before last, in addition to being “busy,” I was already working on a large project, A Wolf in the Sky, and didn’t want to invest myself in another one. That, however, is another excuse. I’ve been told that you don’t have to start a new novel in order to participate in NaNoWriMo. You can supposedly put the 50,000 words to any project. As far as last year, I have no idea what my excuse was. I may have been working on a short story or licking my wounds from rejection letters.

This year’s a little different. Even if I don’t get out 50,000 words during November, I have November marked on my internal calendar for when I’ll aim to finish my rough draft of The Traveler’s Blade, the young adult fantasy novel I’m working on. It may turn out that I’ll be editing during November. That’ll be fine, because I’ll have met an important goal during NaNoWriMo and I’ll feel like I’m a part of it. And that’s what I think NaNoWriMo is really about. It’s a collective, nation-wide effort to take care of writerly business and have a good time doing it. More than that, it’s a celebration of artistic creation. There are contests you can enter on the NaNoWriMo website, and forums where you can connect and work with other writers who are participating in NaNoWrimo. On the other hand, you don’t have to tell a soul you’re doing it, much less blog or leave a record of it somewhere.

Nobody’s really watching. If you wanted, you could lie about the 50,000 words and say, if someone asked for proof, that they burned in a fire or–if you really want to sound legit–were lost with your hard drive or USB flash drive. But then, you wouldn’t feel like a part of it.

NaNoWriMo isn’t about finishing those 50,000 words; it’s about participating. As the website proclaims, “NaNoWriMo is for anyone who has ever thought about writing a novel.” It’s for both the initiated and uninitiated. Heck, throw terms like initiated and uninitiated out the window. They have no place in the creative process.

This year I’m sneaking up on NaNoWriMo. I have a personal goal and I have a goal for NaNoWriMo. My goal for NaNoWriMo is to make time to participate in it in some way, whether that’s finishing or editing a rough draft or working on a new project.

Here’s the website: http://nanowrimo.org/

Edit: No, no I won’t finish by November. I’m working on it, though!