It’s November 1st, the first day of National Novel Writing Month, AKA NaNoWriMo, AKA when writers around the world scramble to write 50,000 words in a month. I’ll be participating, but in a limited way.
I’ve done NaNoWriMo three times. I succeeded in writing 50,000 words twice, and got at least 30,000 words the other time. I say “at least,” because I don’t actually remember how many words I wrote.
Unfortunately, I’ve discovered that 50,000 words doesn’t equal a novel for me. It doesn’t even equal half a novel. If I were dividing my novels into three acts—and I often don’t, but many do—50,000 (rushed, poorly chosen) words have never gotten me past Act 1.
My first NaNoWriMo novel is of a story I have no plans on returning to. My second is sitting as a giant stack of loose-leaf paper, and I’m not entirely certain I’ve typed it all. My third, the closest 50,000 words to being “usable,” is part of a novel that I last worked on in 2017. (I was, however, shocked to open the document and find I had 85,000 words for that novel. So I can’t exactly call it a write off.)
My point? It’s not to refuse the call of NaNoWriMo. If you’re a writer who hasn’t tried it before, I encourage you to try at least once, circumstances permitting. For some writers, it is one of the most productive and inspiring times. For some, just being able to say, “I wrote 50,000 words in a month” is a hugely beneficial confidence boost.
For me, however, a writer who can produce a lot of words but cover little story, I need to think of NaNoWriMo in a new way. Not the classic “start a new novel, with no outline, write 50,000 words” way. Been there, done that. Succeeded, but during the subsequent months of burnout—which other writers may not experience, so don’t let this scare you off—just 50,000 words alone didn’t feel much like success.
Instead, I’m going to set my own goals this year. I used to complete NaNoWriMo by writing 3,000 words a day, which would give me some leeway in reaching 50,000 words in 30 days. It would take me about 3 hours to write those words NaNo-style. (It probably takes longer these days, when I worry about writing suitable words and not just… words.)
This year, I will commit to 3 hours of writing-related work every day. That could be writing, editing, outlining, even writing this blog post, because god knows I don’t update this thing nearly as much as I’d like to. I will focus on two projects—editing my visual novel and editing/rewriting my fairytale novel—but if a deadline for a short story submission approaches, I will happily work on that.
With these personalized rules, can I actually call myself a NaNoWriMo participant? I don’t know. I do know I’m not alone. Many of my writer friends have expressed the intent to use NaNoWriMo as a month of editing. At first I worried about the logistics—how would you count words in editing? Is it based on number of words you started with, or number of words you ended with? But then I realized it didn’t matter. The key goal is being productive and trying something new. Writing 50,000 words of a fresh work and adding to my pile of unfinished novels isn’t new for me.
I don’t know how my plan will pan out. However, I’ve challenged (and “succeeded”) at classic NaNoWriMo enough times to know that it may not be the best option for me. So I’m going to try something different. Maybe my November productivity will go nowhere, and I’ll join the ranks of classic NaNo again next year. But this year is reserved for experimentation, and I’m not going to beat myself up if the results aren’t what I desired.
(I’ll try not to, in any case. Because a writer who doesn’t beat themselves up is as rare as a dog that meows.)
Good luck to everyone this November. If you’re committed to classic NaNoWriMo, go for it! However, if that hasn’t worked for you in the past, don’t hesitate to find your own format. The goal of NaNoWriMo is not merely to hammer out words, but to foster productivity, confidence, and community. How each writer finds those things may be different, and I encourage all of us to walk whatever path that makes us better writers.