Every year, tens of thousands of people participate in something called NaNoWriMo. (There’s a whole debate about pronunciation, Wree vs Wry. I’m on the side of Wry.) It stands for National Novel Writing Month, and the idea is to write a book of at least 50,000 words, all in the month of November. That’s right, an entire book.
It’s not as bad as it sounds. You need an average of 1667 words each day. Let’s pretend you type 30 wpm (which isn’t very fast, but that’s okay). Let’s assume you can compose sentences as quickly as you can type (which is actually more of an assumption). 1667 words divided by 30 wpm=56 minutes. That’s less than an hour a day.
So in an hour a day for a month, you can write an entire novel. Wow, that’s pretty impressive!
You can track your progress for free on the official site (and indeed, you must to qualify for the prizes), and it’s rather fun to see your progress creep up the graph. You can add writing buddies and projects and more! At the end of the month, if you met the goal, you get a winner’s certificate and a bunch of prizes (mostly discounts on various writing programs).
Wait, you say. There must be a catch.
Well, yes and no. It really is free. The prizes are real. It sounds pretty easy.
Oh, wait. That’s the catch. It’s not always easy…
Remember me saying that composing as fast as you type might be an assumption? Some people have no problem coming up with words, spewing them out as fast as their fingers can move. Some people, and we don’t have to name names, struggle with the perfect sentence or even the perfect next word. Or they get a scene done and then don’t know what comes next.
Folks, this is normal. Repeat after me. It’s normal. You’re normal. Really, it’s fine.
It took me two years (or was it three?) before I passed NaNoWriMo. I got close, but 40K doesn’t count, alas. Now I’m faster, but I still struggle. I’m normal, too. 😛 I try to hard for the perfect sentences and need to practice just letting it spill out. Edit it later, I tell myself, but sometimes myself doesn’t listen…
So, if you’d like a challenge this November, or if you’ve always wanted to write a book but didn’t get around to it, here’s the perfect excuse. Come join us in NaNoWriMo!
Happy writing,
M. C. Lee
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