nanowriwha?

I've recently realized that over the past month or so, I've mentioned NaNoWriMo casually in conversations, and that the people I was talking to probably thought I was babbling gibberish. Ah, well.

For those of you who don't know, NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month. Their shiny website is here. Basically, NaNo is an organized event that takes place over the course of the month of November, in which people from across the country try to write 50,000 original words in 30 days. It's meant to help people in that previously mentioned 80% of people who think they'll write a novel actually finish one and become part of the two percent who do. Apparently 50,000 words is an average length for a novel.

Anyway, I'm a big fan of NaNo; it forces writers to stop lollygagging and lazing about, and actually try to meet goals and deadlines that they set for themselves. Even notoriously anti-deadline writers like yours truly. NaNo focuses entirely on quantity, rather than quality - to succeed, it's best to remove the Backspace key from your keyboard entirely. Most people agree that once you've finished your 50,000 words and read over your new manuscript, you'll find that approximately 45,000 of those words are utter crap. But 5,000 of them will be completely wonderful, all the more so because you wrote them yourself. And, in order to edit a novel and get it to be great, you have to have a novel written. Which is why NaNo is so helpful to struggling writers.

I've participated in NaNo for the past two years, and hit over 50,000 words both times. I fully acknowledge that most of what I wrote deserves to be drenched in lamesauce - I've actually snorted in disdain while rereading some of it. But, as any good writer will tell you, practice is the key to becoming a skilled writer. The first thing...the first fifty things...you write won't be the next Pride and Prejudice or Jurassic Park. But each thing you write will get you one step closer to it.

I fully encourage any author-hopefuls out there to take part in NaNo this year. It's loads of fun, and loads of help. If you succeed, you'll be on top of the world. Even if you don't, you'll accomplish something and get writing practice along the way. It's two months away - start brainstorming now. Just remember - you can't write any of those 50,000 words until November 1st.