So today is 1,920 words, with a total of 13,677 out of 50,000 – 27% done the goal for the month.
And, after eight days, I have some comments on the whole issue to make 😀
1) 50,000 words is NOT a novel. Anyone doing NaNoWriMo should remember that. 50,000 words is a long novella or a really short YA or Harlequin. My goal is to write 50,000 words in november, which is a good solid start to a book. Most genre fiction should be at least 100,000 words.
2) 50,000 words is a good solid chunk of text – a solid start to a book, as I said. If you finish NaNoWriMo, you have either (if you fit a whole story in that) a skeletonish story that can be expanded, or the first half of a good size novel.
3) external motivation is a WONDERFUL thing. I had not, at this point, written anything significant in about six or seven months, if not even longer. NaNoWriMo encouraged me to actually get going on a totally new project. The reporting back each day or so on numbers helps keep me on track – I suspect if my facebook went without a NaNoWriMo update for more than a day or so, I’d get queried as to why I wasn’t writing 😀
4) perspective is also fun. A professional author who writes 50,000 words this November… is having a slow month. But they are supposed to be devoting eight or more hours a day to writing, editing and polishing. For those of who devote an hour or two a day to it, well, none of that is going to be editing and polishing.
5) I tremble to think anyone would turn around in December and submit their NaNoWriMo project somewhere. See point 1 on it not being a novel, but also any novel requires massive editing and cleaning before publication. At least one of my books had an entire plot thread added after it was completed, which explained a lot of what was going on in the character’s head. One of my first readers suggested it, and it was desperately needed. That addition? Probably 10,000 words and two weeks of work. That was one of dozens of minor and major edits to ONSET. Editing is your friend, first readers willing to make suggestions are your GODS.
… and, to be honest, what I’m writing for NaNoWriMo is so unbelievably deriative popcorn I’m not sure I’d be able to hand to my agent with a straight face.
All of that said, I think NaNoWriMo is wonderful – it has motivated me to write again, which is worth a LOT. And for those to whom its a new thing? Well, a piece of wisdom I don’t remember the source of anymore:
You WILL write a million words of absolute crap before you produce one story worthwhile. NaNoWriMo will, if nothing else, help you get through that million!
Now go write.
Glynn
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