In just a few short hours, the global madness known as National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) begins. This year marks the 18th for the literary phenomenon, and organizers expect nearly 500,000 people to accept the challenge of writing a 50,000-word novel during the month of November.
To give you an idea of the success rate, last year 431,626 participants on six continents signed up, and more than 40,000 crossed the 50K finish line. At a minimum, NaNoWriMo 2015 prompted the creation of more than 2 billion words in 30 days. (Just so you know, some of the participants routinely go way, way beyond 50K.)
So if you’re on the fence about participating, consider the following reasons why I’ve embraced this insanity seven times since 2003:
1. You commit to your writing. NaNoWriMo started when a small group of folks in San Francisco decided to make the move from “people who wanted to write a novel one day” to “people who had written a novel.” Life has an annoying, consistent way of interfering with creative endeavors. For one month, you tell the world that you’re putting your writing first. The kids can eat take-out. The laundry can pile up. But for these 30 days, your free time is accounted for. This deadline also reassures your nearest and dearest that you will be back among them December 1. You, and they, can do this for four weeks.
2. You turn off your inner editor. Many aspiring writers struggle because they can’t help but judge the quality of their fledgling manuscripts as the words leak onto the page or screen. Guess what? With only 30 days to crank out 50K, you don’t have the luxury of waiting for perfect prose to manifest in your gray matter. The single mandate is quantity, not quality. In fact, when you validate your word count, you have the option of converting your text to gibberish (for those paranoid folk who fear someone will steal their brilliant brainchildren). So go with it. Grimace if you must. Feel free to vomit occasionally. Just keep writing.
3. You will amaze yourself. We all have self-imposed limitations, whether or not we recognize them. Once upon a time, I was convinced my maximum hourly output was 500 words. (In case you haven’t done the math, NaNoWriMo requires an average pace of 1,667 words per day.) Last year I pounded out 1,800 words in a single hour, taking breaks, as part of a group writing session. Check out the NaNoWriMo forums and messaging boards, and you’ll see many stories of superhuman noveling feats: from people who have written nearly 10,000 words in a single day to overachievers who wrote their first 50,000 words in 72 hours, in ballpoint pen, on toilet paper… (Okay. Scratch the TP.)
4. You won’t be alone. The national MWA organization sends out weekly pep talks from bestselling authors to help you keep keepin’ on. Nearly 1,000 volunteers around the country (including yours truly) cheerlead their regions, by email, in chatrooms, during in-person writing events. We may all be different in terms of background, age, ethnicity, experience, genre, but we are all earning our stripes as writers. Whether the words we scribble or type ever see the light of day (and let’s be honest, most of them should never see the light of day, unless it’s in a very gentle, supportive critique group), we. Are. Writing.
5. You win (even if you don’t “win”). Hey, it happens. The dog gets sick. Your laptop self-combusts. Extra-terrestrials kidnap you for 72 hours, and it takes a full week to find your groove. For various reasons, the vast majority of NaNoWriMo participants don’t cross the finish line. But don’t beat yourself up if December 1 rolls around and you’re still sitting at 35K. Or 15K. Those hard-fought words wouldn’t exist if you hadn’t had the guts to take on this challenge, and you never know where those partial drafts may lead. You committed to your writing, and you wrote, by gum. No one can take that achievement away from you.
If you decide to take the plunge, check out our Facebook page and join us for a write-in. Also, drop in and say “hi” in the Northwest New Jersey Regional Forum. (Residency in the Garden State is by no means required.)
—Mistina Picciano is a content marketer by day, eclectic novelist during every other moment. Favorite genres include mystery, suspense, romance, and horror, and most of her work includes elements of at least three of the four. This year marks her second as a NaNoWriMo Municipal Liaison.