The Ups and Downs of National Novel Writing Month (Nanowrimo)

In case you haven’t heard, November 1st was the start of what those of us in the writing community call Nanowrimo, which is basically a month set aside for people to write a 50,000 word manuscript and then call it a day…or a month. It’s based on the average size of a novel (about 200 pages) and the realization that they usually clock in at about 50,000 words. Now, you could write the beginning of a very long novel, but if you participate in Nanowrimo, the goal is to at least get those 200 pages completed. Anything after that is just gravy.

Most people sign onto Nanowrimo on the first of the month, go a few days (some even a few weeks) and then they give up. And every time you mention the event, they’ll either pretend to know nothing about it, or they’ll mention how silly it is. A few, if brave enough, will tell you they attempted it and failed.

Most people aren’t capable of owning up to the fact that writing a novel is hard and that most people are incapable of holding enough focus to write an entire novel-length manuscript. But most people who have ever written anything tend to think they are completely capable of writing a novel. At least until they attempt it.

I’ve been participating in Nanowrimo every year for about as long as I can remember. I’m pretty sure I had written 12 or 13…