One week left until November, and the start of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo for short). For those of you going, “NaNowhat?”, this November thousands of frenzied novelists (would-be and otherwise) will pound away at their keyboards, aiming to amass 50,000 words of a novel. The massive amount of wordage in so short a time is devised to bring down your Internal Editor (and run it over with a steamroller and leave it a smear on the pavement) and let your creative side run free and unfettered.
I have a great fondness for NaNoWriMo. My first attempt at it, back in 2003, netted me about half of The Changeling, my first (and well-beloved) novel. I’ve never seriously attempted it since then, as I’ve been busy raising babies. Now my youngest is over one and sleeping through the night, and my husband–freed from the demands of academia–is going to try it for the first time. He wanted me to do NaNo alongside him, and without thinking it through, I said, “Sure!”
Except I’m not. Sure, that is. I think NaNo is a fantastic idea for the first-time novelist who needs a shove, or one whose Internal Editor needs to be gagged and bound and thrown into a deep well. I think it’ll be a great experience for my very left-brained husband (he’s had this story idea for years and I’m glad he’s actually going to be getting it down!).
I’m just not sure that it’s the right thing for me to do.
Since I won NaNo in 2003, I went on to finish and revise my novel. I also wrote a second and revised that a few times. I wrote a third (unrevised). Now I’m working on my fourth. NaNo made it possible for me to break that mental block that so many people have towards writing a novel–it seems like an unclimbable mountain. But now that I’ve done it a few times, I have confidence in myself and my own processes. I’m working on creating a writing habit (500 words/5 times a week). I’m in it for a long haul and not convinced that binge-writing (and subsequent burnout or backsliding) is right for me. I also think a slower pace has more thoughtfulness built into the process of novel writing. If something isn’t working quite right, I can take the time to reevaluate, instead of pushing on to the bitter end and having a reeking mess to edit.
But all that said, I’m not sure. I love NaNo. I love its energy, its camaraderie, the chance to do this alongside my husband. I love winning, even if all I get is an icon.
What about you? Are you doing NaNo this year? Care to share your opinions and experiences with it?
I’m amused by how many horrible tortuous ways you manage to kill the internal editor in this single post 🙂
I agree with you re NaNo. For me, a consistent writing habit is much more productive than trying to get as many words down in the shortest amount of time possible. I burn out at the end of every novel anyway.
I’ve done NaNo two years running (starting 2007) and won both times. This year I have to give it a miss as there is just too much writing and editing to do without participating in NaNo as well.
I thought I could do GothNo and visit family at the same time. That really wasn’t possible, and the distance separating me from my family meant that I was putting family first for the three weeks.
So November is going to be spent writing the ghost story novella instead of doing NaNo this year. There’s also last year’s NaNo to edit, and last year’s GothNo.
Like you I like the camaraderie and encouragement from the NaNo community, and I LOVE collecting the banners!
Lisa,
I’m with you in giving it a miss this year, as well. Bummer. I still have this short story to get out by mid-November and it is not moving very fast at all.
Jo,
You know the love-hate relationship I have with that blasted Internal Editor. 😀