So, I’m participating in NaNoWriMo. Well, unofficially anyway. I’m not joining any sites associated with the idea or anything, and I’ve modified word counts to suit myself, but ultimately, I’m still using the challenge to get the novel I’ve wanted to write for a while written.
For those who have no idea what I’m talking about, NaNoWriMo is short for National Novel Writing Month. The “National” bit is a bit of misnomer these days, since it’s become a little more international. Hell, the fact I’m doing it shows it’s international. The thing’s American, and I am not.
And of course, the point is to produce a novel by the end of November. Which sounds daunting, until you break it down as I have. First of all, who says you need to have a complete publishable novel by the end of the month? After all, writing a proper novel involves writing multiple drafts and editing constantly until it resembles something genuinely good. So I narrowed this down to writing a first draft by the end of the month. This means all I need to do is write 50,000 words by the end of the month.
Still sounds daunting? Well, OK, let’s divide that by 30. Oh, that gives 1667 words a day. Now I’m fussy, I like round numbers or nothing. So 1500 words a day it is. OK, this means my overall word count becomes 45,000, but this is merely a minimum. I could still hit 50,000 by the end of this. Who knows what might happen?
The reason I broke this down was to make it less daunting. 1500 words a day isn’t actually a lot. My Sven vs. The Movies reviews are between 500 and 1000 words (with Star Wars being an exception due to it being 3 films), and I can write those reasonably quickly, so why can’t I do that for a novel?
And it’s worked so far. I’m very much on target at this point, to the point where I feel like taking a break from it today and doing a bit of work on other things that have been neglected. In trying to work the novel around my job, I’ve found I’ve had less time for the movies for Sven vs. The Movies, or I’ve let my Youtube LPs slip even more than usual. But I have the next two days off, so I can easily catch up.
But I’m amazed at some other people’s methods of taking on this challenge. I encountered a Twitter of a guy who was pushing to write the full 50,000 words by the end of this week, to which I ask “why?” Surely the whole point of the exercise is to get a draft done in one month, then edit it and tweak it later? Or am I the one missing the point here? There are also people bemoaning their “poor” word counts so far of something like 20,000. It’s only the first week of four! What the hell? I’ve only reached just shy of 11,000, and I’m proud of that.
I suppose it’s just interesting to see how people take on this challenge, and how differently people try and push themselves to do it. I take the slow and steady “breaking it down” route, and then edit it later; others want to blitz it in as little time as possible.
So is anyone reading this participating in NaNoWriMo? How do you go about tackling this challenge? Let me know in the comments!
