My NaNoWriMo 2011 Experience

By now, most of you will know that NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month. People sign up to the challenge of writing 50,000 words in thirty days, from 1 to 30 November of each year.

Now, 50,000 words is not a novel - at best, it's a novelette. But the aim is to write such a huge chunk of the novel that when NaNoWriMo ends, authors are inspired to carry on through December and however long it takes in order to actuall finish the book they've begun.

There is a website: www.nanowrimo.org which participants sign up to. It sends out encouraging emails every week, plus has forums and hints and tips pages for people struggling with their plots, characters, settings etc.

The organisers do, however, stress quantity over quality of writing. They think that deleting a scene or character or episode which isn't working is a bad idea. The aim is to constantly push onwards, instead of looking back. Revision and editing come at the end, not during, the writing process they advocate.

Tens of thousands of people participate worldwide every year.

I took part in NaNoWriMo for the first time this year (2011).

I approached it in a very different way, however. You see, I already had a novel which was 50% complete, and I wanted to use the discipline required for writing 50,000 words in 30 days to finish it before Christmas. So I didn't really follow the NaNo rules, but still, I feel I entered fully into the spirit of the event.

I did not adhere to the no-revision rules either, though. Because my novel's plot and characters were already fully-formed, if I wrote a scene which didn't fit, I happily deleted it. I didn't aim for quantity over quality and, it has to be said, the word count breaks down to only 1,667 words per day to reach target. To me, that isn't a great deal, and so if something didn't work, I could delete it and simply write another 1,667 words to fill the gap and maintain my word count.

So, the result: I wrote 52,157 words in the month of November. I had hoped that would complete the novel, but I was wrong. I am now estimating a further 25,000 words will be needed to complete this epic, and so I am maintaining the spirit of NaNoWriMo by aiming to write those 25,000 words in a fortnight.

With the novel complete, I can begin the editing process and then get to work on the sequel.

Everyone! I genuinely believe that everyone who thinks they have a book in them, should participate.

People are so busy that the thought of dedicating months and months to writing a novel is daunting. The thought of dedicating just one month, however, is a lot less frightening, and a lot more logistically feasible.

So I say: give it a go, and good luck!