Welcome to November, the month of giant turkeys, going out of your way to stomp on really crunchy leaves, locating the knitted hats in the back of your closet, and the tortured and frantic writing known as NaNoWriMo. For those of you unfamiliar with the idea, here’s how it works:
National Novel Writing Month is essentially a competition (with yourself) to produce a 50,000 word novel during the month of November. That’s right. Entire novel. Start to finish. 50,000 words.
So starting November 1st, there is a whole big giant bundled caboodle of writers out there glued to their computers for the duration in hopes that they might stumble onto something incredible, and barring that, something that at least makes sense at the end. Any writer who meets or exceeds the 50,000-word goal is crowned a WINNER and the lovely prize is endlessly editing whatever they wrote. YAY!
Any fans of math (HAHAHAHA) could tell you what my calculator is telling me. 50,000 words over 30 days averages to almost 1,700 words per day. And to end up with a novel, at least some of these words should make sense when put in order. At this point, you might be asking yourself:
Are these people insane? Quite possibly, yes.
Am I going to join them? YOU BET YOUR ASS I AM.
With the internet as my witness, I will be participating in NaNoWriMo for the first time.
This is a bit of a dangerous game because creativity on a deadline isn’t always my thing and failure is even less my thing. I am a perfectionist. And that is basically the number one things you cannot be during NaNoWriMo. There is no time for perfect. There is barely time for food.
I’ve also had the worst case of writer’s block I’ve ever had and it has gone on almost all year. I’ve produced nothing I’m happy with.
But I HAVE A PLAN.
WHAT IF, and bear with me here, NaNoWriMo is what people need to get over that perfectionism, that block that tells us whatever we’re doing isn’t good enough, has to be changed before we move on? The block that prevents us from moving forward, keeps us writing and re-writing the same scenes until we’re frustrated and can’t see straight. I AM SO SICK OF THAT FEELING.
So I’m letting it go.
I am all about expectation management. Am I going to write the next GREAT AMERICAN NOVEL in the next 30 days? No I am not. Am I going to write A NOVEL* that exists on this plane of reality? YES I AM.
What’s it going to be about? I DO NOT KNOW YET. Who is the main character? I GUESS WE’RE GOING TO FIND OUT.
This is the most freedom I’ve felt with my writing in a long time, and I’m going to enjoy it.
AND YOU CAN TOO.
The coolest thing (in my humble, first-timer’s opinion) about NaNoWriMo is joining the giant community of writers who support each other through this hectic month. I can’t wait to conduct Twitter polls of what my characters’ names should be, encourage people that they’re on the right track if they’re writing at all, laugh through the pain with every other participant.
In short, I’m ready to get long-winded. I’m ready to shake things up.
If you are also chaining yourself to your laptop this November, let me know in the comments or come find me on Twitter so we can lean on each other. I’ll be the one with the slightly manic twinkle in her eyes.
See you on the field.
Are you participating in NaNoWriMo?
*Is NaNoWriMo in November because novel and November share the same first three letters? My mind is blown.
