Monday 1 November 2010

NaNoWriMo Starts Today! (For some...)

Today is the first of November, which has been designated National Novel Writing Month.  For those of you who aren't aware of it, the aim is to write a 50,000 word novel over the next 30 days.  

It's good for those who need deadlines and like working to targets.

It's bad for those who have quite enough guilt trips in their life and don't need another one.

It's good if you need encouragement to break free of the perfectionist streak - the NaNoWriMo novel is one where the style and content is irrelevant, because only achieving the word count matters.

It's bad if you feel a failure because your personal writing process doesn't fit with churning words out.  

It's good if it means your family/friends/work colleagues will give you more space to write because you can label what you're doing. 

It's bad if you can only write under pressure - the ideal is to develop a regular writing routine which will enable you to continue after November.  Bit like crash dieting v sensible eating and regular exercise.  

It's good if you have an idea buzzing around your head that you want to get down on the page as quickly as possible.

It's bad if it distracts you from your current work in progress (new ideas are invariably more attractive).

So, NaNoWriMo might be great for you, or bad.  Either way, watching this video will bring a smile to your face...

2 comments:

Lesley Cookman said...

How true, Sarah. Great idea if you have time to go back and sort it out afterwards, and as I understand it is for unpublished writers, that's a given. But shove a deadline into the mix, and the need to do research along the way which sometimes means you only get a third (or less) of your self imposed daily word count done and it would be an impossibility. Too much pressure!

Sarah Duncan said...

Yes, I found it all too much when I had a go last year. It's the added pressure, which I can do without. However, there's no doubt that it works for lots of people.