Today is November 1, 2012 and the first day of Nanowrimo! If you’re not familiar with the term, it stands for National November Writing Month and is when writers all around the world come together to support each other as they each attempt to write a novel of at least 50k words during the 30 days of November.
For more information, and to sign up, go to www.nanowrimo.org
It wasn’t until the 4th time I attempted Nano that I actually ‘won’ and hit the 50k words. I did it by writing almost every day, and making daily progress. It’s fun to see the pages pile up and it doesn’t take as much time as you would think. I just wrote for a little over an hour, and got my first 842 words down. Which is almost halfway to my daily goal. I’ll jump back in tonight and keep going. I finished this morning’s session in the middle of a scene, with an idea of what needs to happen, so hopefully my subconscious will be working on this all day, ideas simmering, so that when I sit down tonight the rest of the words will come.
I think I read somewhere that so far, close to 100 Nano novels have been published, some going on to huge success, such as WATER FOR ELEPHANTS by Sara Gruen. Perhaps you’ve heard of that runaway best-seller that was originally rejected by her current publisher, Avon books, as being ‘too small’ of a story. Algonquin, a smaller publisher, happily picked it up, and then word-of-mouth led by enthusiastic independent book sellers took over.
What is important to know about Nano is that books are born here, in often very rough draft form. A finished Nano novel is a starting point, a no longer blank canvas, on which a wonderful story can be shaped, finished and polished. Nano helps you to turn off that inner editor and just play, to let the words flow. It was difficult for me to do at first as that is not naturally how I write. But, if you can let yourself go, it’s very freeing and surprising how sometimes parts of the rough draft aren’t so rough. 🙂
To all who are participating, I wish you the best of luck!
~Pam