WriMos to NaNo in November

NATIONAL NOVEL WRITING MONTH (otherwise known as NaNoWriMo) FEATURES  THE LARGEST WRITING CONTEST IN THE WORLD

There are some who say writing a novel takes awesome talent, strong language skills, academic training, and years of dedication.

Not true.

All it really takes is a deadline – a very, very tight deadline – and maybe a whole lot of coffee.

Welcome to National Novel Writing Month: a nonprofit literary crusade that encourages aspiring novelists all over the world to write a 50,000-word novel in a month. At midnight on November 1, over 150,000 writers from some 90 countries – poised over laptops and pads of paper, fingers itching and minds racing with plots and characters – will begin a furious adventure in fiction. By 11:59 PM on November 30, tens of thousands of them will be novelists.

NaNoWriMo is the largest writing contest in the world. In 2008, over 120,000 people took part in the free challenge. And while the event stresses fun and creative exploration over publication, more than thirty NaNoWriMo novelists have had their NaNo-novels published, including Sarah Gruen, whose New York Times #1 Best Seller, Water for Elephants began as a NaNoWriMo novel.

Around 18% of NaNoWriMo participants “win” every year by writing 50,000 words and validating their novels on the organization’s website before midnight on November 30. There are no judges, and winners receive no prizes. In fact, no one at NaNoWriMo ever reads the manuscripts submitted. They tabulate the word counts and delete them.

So if not for fame or fortune, why do people do it?

“The 50,000-word challenge has a wonderful way of opening up your imagination and unleashing creative potential like nothing else,” says NaNoWriMo founder and program director Chris Baty. “When you write for quantity instead of quality, you end up getting both.”

Henderson author Gregory Kompes says you need to write about 1,700 words a day to complete NaNoWriMo so it’s an excellent way to acquire a daily writing habit. “In addition to building our writing muscles, NaNoWriMo also helps those writers who sometimes get trapped over editing their first draft and never finishing the core of the story. Many writing teachers believe the best way to write a new story is to get the whole first draft down on the page before moving on to editing and revision,” Kompes said.

The NaNoWriMo web sites advises; “Do not edit as you go. Editing is for December. Think of November as an experiment in pure output. Even if it’s hard at first, leave ugly prose and poorly written passages on the page to be cleaned up later. Your inner editor will be very grumpy about this, but your inner editor is a nitpicky jerk who foolishly believes that it is possible to write a brilliant first draft if you write it slowly enough. It isn’t. Every book you’ve ever loved started out as a beautifully flawed first draft. In November, embrace imperfection and see where it takes you”.

Most novels are longer than 50,000 words (more typically 75,000 to 100,000 words) but a 50,000 word draft is a good start for any novelist.

Writers can also find support via a Las Vegas forum and meet-ups for other “Wrimos” as participants have come to be known. Upon sign-up, writers indicate their Home Region and some competition exists for a cummulative word count total between different regions.

Local writer Teresa Watts says “In the Las Vegas Region we have 98 participants so far — it will get bigger by October 31. Stats indicate 26% are new to NaNo. A good number of participants are high school students!” Watts will “NaNo” the rough draft for her second book this November.

A Las Vegas NaNo success story is Laura Alton. Her book Las Vegas Chew Toy was a 2006 NaNoWriMo winner and was recently published by Cyberwizard Productions in Texas. “Doing NaNo made me finish a book,” Alton said. “I had started several novels before but this was the first one that was finished. It is hard to keep up the pace but it forces you to keep producing words”.

Veteran book designer Sue Campbell is offering an additional incentive for NaNo writers — a cover design contest. Campbell, who has designed many award-winning books for Stephens Press and other publishers around the country, will accept one hundred entries from NaNo “winners” (writers who complete the 50,000 word challenge) and select three for which she’ll professionally design a full color book cover, gratis. Details for the contest are at http://www.suecampbellgraphicdesign.com/.

For more information about National Novel Writing Month visit www.NaNoWriMo.org.