As quickly because the seasons begin to shift from summer time to fall, it looks as if each writerly nook of the Web turns into consumed with one query and one query solely:
Are you going to do NaNoWriMo this 12 months?
Should you’re asking your self that query, you’ve come to the proper place. On this article, we’ll discuss what NaNoWriMo is, the NaNoWriMo guidelines (official and unofficial), and a few ideas I’ve personally compiled that will help you take advantage of your NaNoWriMo expertise.
What’s NaNoWriMo?
Let’s seek the advice of the 2009 vlogbrothers video titled “NaNoWriMo!!!” In it, John Inexperienced defines NaNoWriMo like this: “In case you don’t know what NaNoWriMo is, it’s Nationwide Novel Writing Month, an annual occasion during which individuals attempt to write a fifty-thousand phrase novel in a single month.”
That sums it up properly! NaNoWriMo takes place in the course of the month of November, and its purpose is to get its contributors to put in writing a novel of fifty-thousand phrases by the top of the month. Individuals make accounts on the competition’s web site and enter their every day phrase counts there. The location additionally makes use of every day phrase counts to challenge how lengthy it can take the participant to complete their novel (even when they don’t win NaNoWriMo), how a participant’s phrase rely compares to others within the space, and, after all, how shut they’re to finishing their purpose.
Usually, on-line communities form of drop every part to concentrate on NaNoWriMo. It’s almost inescapable, and it’s not onerous to grasp why. Writing is usually an intensely solitary exercise, and whereas some writers may need in-person author mates, lots don’t. Occasions like NaNoWriMo give writers an actual sense of group as they work in the direction of their frequent purpose, and that is the actual magic of NaNoWriMo.
The First Three Guidelines for NaNoWriMo
We’ve talked about learn how to formally enter NaNoWriMo (establishing an account on the positioning linked above), however what are the foundations? Certainly it may possibly’t be so simple as ‘write fifty-thousand phrases in a month.’
When NaNoWriMo was first based, there was a algorithm governing how the competition would play out and what participation counted in the direction of the top purpose. Kelsey McKinney, writing for Vox, outlines these foundational guidelines, which had been put in place by Chris Baty in 2000:
The writing challenge have to be newIt have to be written by a single personIt must be completed by midnight on November thirtieth
That is all simple, and the foundations for NaNo haven’t modified a lot within the years since. Now, when you look on the Wikipedia web page for present guidelines, they’re largely simply an growth on the present standards. The competition begins in the beginning of the month and ends on the finish of the month, the purpose is fifty-thousand phrases, et cetera.
Do I’ve to observe these guidelines to take part?
What when you’re working with one other author or with a bunch of writers on a novel, or what when you’re engaged on a novel that’s going to exceed fifty-thousand phrases (nearly all of them do)? What when you’ve bought a challenge you’ve began, and also you need to use NaNoWriMo to actually concentrate on it?
That’s high-quality!
Because the Wikipedia web page factors out, NaNoWriMo is a “self-challenge,” which implies it’s largely arrange for contributors to push themselves towards the purpose. There’s not somebody from the NaNoWriMo group standing over your shoulder and going “uh, that’s not a brand-new concept. You already had that file in your pc. Pack up your pens and go!”
So long as you might have put fifty-thousand phrases in, you’ve received the competition.
Does this cheapen the deal? Not likely. The largest reward contributors get for finishing NaNo is the achievement itself: writing fifty-thousand phrases in a month. Generally NaNo will supply to print a replica of the participant’s draft or one thing like that, however often, you get a certificates and a pat on the again. Many of the reward is within the work itself.
So if you wish to observe the foundations, observe them! If not, cool! It’s your life.
My (very unofficial) NaNoWriMo Guidelines: Suggestions for Having a Good Time
The present guidelines for NaNoWriMo are simply high-quality, however as somebody who’s been a participant yearly for some time, listed here are just a few tricks to taking advantage of your NaNoWriMo expertise.
1. Don’t got down to write a novel
I do know, I do know, that is type of the entire level of NaNoWriMo, however hear me out.
You’re nearly positively not going to put in writing an amazing novel in a month. First drafts are not often any good, and the primary draft of one thing you manically typed over the course of a month might be additionally not going to be excellent.
John Inexperienced factors this out in “NaNoWriMo!!!,” saying “as a rule, no nice e book will be written in a month.”
This isn’t to say you shouldn’t attempt to do your greatest otherwise you shouldn’t attempt to write a e book. It’s simply to say that it’s best to preserve your expectations cheap. What you’re going to finish up with is fifty-thousand phrases—that’s all you will be certain of. It most likely won’t be a whole draft, since most novels are rather more than fifty thousand phrases, and it’ll positively be tough.
I wish to strategy NaNoWriMo as a large phrase dash. For anybody who doesn’t know: a phrase dash is the place you set a timer for a brief period of time, often 5 to twenty minutes, and write as a lot as you possibly can with out stopping till the timer goes off. The target of a phrase dash is simply to get one thing on the web page—you possibly can work with one thing, however not with nothing.
And as somebody who has a extremely troublesome time getting an imperfect one thing on the web page (preferring the always-perfect-but-not-actually-real-and-therefore-unsellable-nothing), this makes NaNoWriMo an amazing alternative for some precise making an attempt. You’re going to must revise your first draft it doesn’t matter what you do.
As John Inexperienced goes on to say within the video, “No nice e book will be written in a primary draft irrespective of how lengthy it takes you to put in writing it…NaNoWriMo offers us self-discipline and it offers us permission to suck, that are the 2 belongings you most want when you’re going to be a novelist.”
2. Use NaNoWriMo for caught tasks
Talking of getting an imperfect one thing on the web page: I like to make use of NaNoWriMo strategically as a strategy to work on current tasks. That is in direct violation of the foundations, however it works out properly for me.
Like I mentioned earlier than, NaNoWriMo is a self-challenge. There’s not a NaNoWriMo police and there’s not a NaNoWriMo decide coming to dwell with you for the subsequent month to maintain you in line. You’ll be able to just about use this contest for no matter challenge you’ve bought that must be labored on. I personally like to make use of it to get a number of phrases written—generally these phrases go in the direction of one draft, however generally they go in the direction of work, quick tales, poems, or no matter I would like to do this month.
This would possibly sound type of antithetical to the spirit of the problem. Couldn’t I try this another month? Why use NaNoWriMo simply to knock out my to-do record?
Glad you requested!
Once more, in my view, the most important attraction to NaNoWriMo is in the neighborhood that comes up round it. Folks submit their phrase rely targets and share their works-in-progress (#wip) on Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, most likely additionally TikTok (one way or the other, I’m not on WriterTok, however I assume it exists since BookTok does), most likely additionally in every single place else. It’s free to affix and it invitations writers to attempt to do an unattainable process, which is one thing that simply type of appeals to most writers.
NaNoWriMo additionally affords the power so as to add mates on their web site. This lets you test in your mates’ progress, check out their tasks, and usually join with different individuals collaborating within the contest.
After I look again on the years that I’ve achieved NaNoWriMo, I bear in mind a bit of of the tasks I labored on—the Pinterest boards, the character templates, PrepTober occasions, stuff like that.
However largely I bear in mind the glow of my pc display at one o’clock within the morning, my heavy eyelids and drained retinas, my arms steadily creating a cramp which might go on to hang-out my mid-twenties with a ardour (significantly, maintain your wrists, fellow typists). I bear in mind telling my mates the second I hit my phrase rely purpose and the moments my mates hit theirs.
Like I mentioned earlier than, writing is usually lonely. There aren’t a ton of alternatives to attach with different authors engaged on their very own tasks with a ferocity like individuals deliver to NaNoWriMo. Benefit from the group, and among the friendships you discover would possibly final effectively previous NaNoWriMo.
Now, to my final unofficial rule…
4. Use NaNoWriMo to develop some writerly self-discipline
Earlier than you get mad at me: I positively am not saying that you have to be writing fifty-thousand phrases each month. The truth is, I might argue that you simply positively shouldn’t be. Drafting is just one small a part of the writing course of, and never daily goes to be a drafting day. Fifty-thousand phrases is, respectfully, a crap-ton of phrases, and when you’re writing that many that usually, they’re most likely not nice phrases (and I say this as a once-ghostwriter who used to crank out thirty-thousand phrases every week on the common).
That being mentioned, writing does require a ton of labor, largely in revision. Being a capital N Novelist goes to contain writing when you don’t really feel prefer it and making writing a daily, structured a part of your life. It may not be daily, however it’s going to must be common.
So, use NaNoWriMo to develop habits that be just right for you. Pay attention to what time of day you like to put in writing, or what kinds of drinks you wish to sip whilst you work, or whether or not you want to put in writing outdoor or inside.
Does freewriting go well with you greatest? What about typing? Possibly you’re keen on Microsoft Phrase, or possibly you’re actually into Scrivener. Hold monitor of those sorts of issues and make an effort to type some type of schedule or regiment—this may be edited or modified as your wants fluctuate, however simply as you possibly can’t write an ideal first draft, you possibly can’t grow to be a disciplined creator with out no less than a bit of effort.
Backside Line
Use NaNoWriMo to ask your self what it takes to get you to take a seat down and work in your novel recurrently. Set month-to-month writing targets. Then, take these habits you constructed throughout NaNoWriMo into your future writing tasks, and also you’ll be effectively in your strategy to success.