Thoughts on Nanowrimo

I’ve been doing Nanowrimo for ten or eleven years now. Nanowrimo is National Novel Writing Month. It’s where you write 50,000 words of a novel (or a short 50,000 word novel in its entirety) in the thirty days of November. The main activity besides the writing itself is updating one’s word count each day at the site.

The site is free to use. A whole mythos and culture has developed around Nanowrimo, along with criticism as to its effects on people.

At base, Nanowrimo is a tool. It’s a tool to help writers start and finish novels. That’s all it is. And for what it is, it’s great. I’ve used Nanowrimo to get huge chunks of first drafts written.

In terms of “winning” or “losing” - winning meaning 50,000 words written from Nov. 1-30 - I’ve done both. For those who criticize Nano, this is one of their sticking points. The site has a lot of cute trackers that provide visual cues as to your progress or lack thereof. But most of us have busy lives, and trying to write 1,667 words every day isn’t always easy.

Some days, sure. You write a scene you’ve been looking forward to writing and it just flows from your fingers. But other days it feels like wading through mud, while other work or tasks on your to-do list await your attention.

At the end of the day you’re tired, but sometimes that’s the only time you have to write. And so at 536 words you give up, and log in to the Nano site to input your word count, only to have all those cutesy trackers stare you in the face. “At this rate, you’ll finish on December 4!” one beams cheerfully at you. And the bar chart shows the sad, short little bar representing your puny word count for today, and your compulsive side makes you feel like a failure.

You don’t have to participate in Nano to see this. Just watch all the Nanowrimo writer videos on You Tube. The first week everyone busts out of the gate and writes well over the daily word count. It’s a party. Then the second week comes. This is the “struggle week,” where the writer enters the field of the mushy middle of the novel. Here, lack of structure or even knowing what happens next is no longer a positive. The writer feels directionless, but the Word Count Taskmaster cracks her whip and demands that the 1,667 words be written anyway.

The dreaded third week arrives. You’re already behind on the word count, but the Taskmaster still wants those 1,667 words each day.

This is when you start to see those desperate comments in the Nanowrimo forums. “I’m sobbing right now because I’m so far behind and I can’t get any words out.” “Help me. I hate my stupid fucking story and I don’t know what I’m doing.” “My draft is so shitty. I never should have tried this.”

The worst comments sound like this: “I knew I wasn’t a writer. Oh well.”

No, you are a writer. You’re allowing a creative writing event that ultimately means nothing to define whether you’re a writer or not. This is senseless.

Nanowrimo is a fun social event for some and a working tool for others. It can be done seriously or not seriously. If you’re a beginning writer, please remember that whatever happens when you do Nanowrimo, it doesn’t represent an ultimate judgment on your writing and/or storytelling talent and abilities. If you work at being a writer - learning craft and practicing by writing stories - you’ll become successful in every way that is important to you.

Don’t let Nanowrimo defeat you - either use it for fun and learning, or leave it be. Seriously! If it’s stressing you out, stop, and try again another year.

All that being said, I’m doing Nano this year. I’m writing the first draft of Tales of the Queendoms, my post-series collection of short stories set in the Queendoms story universe.

I’ve structured the four queendoms stories as follows:

1. Founding Story (origin story of the queendom)
2. Quote from the Teachings of Gaia (the spiritual text for the queendoms civilization)
3. Post-Series Story (where the characters end up and their happy endings)

In other words, there are two short stories for each queendom, separated by a quote that relates to the stories.

Given Nano’s one-month structure, writing about four queendoms has meant that November has felt like a personal tour of the queendoms for me. I spent the first week of November in Rio, the second week in Madrona, and now, in the third week, I’m in the Kashaya Sky. ;-)

It’s been a nostalgic feeling for me. I finished this novel series in October 2021, so now, a year later, I’m putting the end cap on the series with HEAs for everyone. I love these characters and will miss writing in this story universe, but I’m glad I had one more opportunity to do so.

Have a lovely Thanksgiving, if you celebrate the holiday. I’ll update again soon.