Some Nano-ish and deadline-ish thoughts
Nanowrimo kicks off shortly. For the uninitiated (if there are any left out there), the idea is that you write 50,000 words in a month. In November. It's a short novel, but it's doable in the 30 days that you have.
The idea is to stop being a 'one-day novelist' – as in, 'one day, I'll write a novel' and just do it.
Writers, both published and aiming-for-publication types, also use it as a way of structuring their writing time – it can be easier to keep motivated with a project when you know lots of other people are doing the same thing. (And the forums can be very useful for quick research questions.)
This post – the 25 things you should know about Nanowrimo – is well worth reading, though I don't necessarily agree with all of it. But I do like the idea of tweaking the Nano opportunity to get whatever you need to get out of it.
For me, there are definitely times when taking longer to write a first version of a novel results in a better first version. There's time to reread, and ponder, and consider, and revise earlier bits as you go along. But there's also time to get distracted, to shift the focus slightly, to become less passionately interested in the story and the characters. Sometimes the intensity of writing quickly and often can really help. The challenging part of Nano isn't writing 1,666 words in a day – for most writers it's a reasonable amount – but writing 1,666 words every day for a month (or however you're structuring your writing time) so that they add up to 50,000 by the end of it.
The ever-wise Alison Wells has written about finding the time for Nanowrimo. And Ellen Brickley, a ML for the Dublin region and Nano enthusiast, talks about reasons to do it.
November can be a busy month for some of us. I can write 50k in 30 days, but usually not in November. At the same time, the question is always are things genuinely busier-than-normal at the moment, or is my life always busier-than-normal? Because there are always so many stories you could tell – more than you can ever get down on the page – and you have to start somewhere. I think the great thing about anything like Nanowrimo is that it slaps down a starting point and a deadline and says, Right. Come on. Let's do this thing. Let's get it out of your head, and onto the page – let's stop dreaming and thinking and start doing – let's go, let's go, let's go.
