Five Reasons Not to do NaNoWriMo
By Jo Eberhardt | November 3, 2018 |
We’re three days into November. Or, as many of think about it, three days into National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo).
Cathy wrote a great post yesterday about trusting your gut during NaNoWriMo. Today I thought I’d write a post about the reasons you shouldn’t do NaNoWriMo at all.
Now, to be clear, I secretly love NaNo. I’ve done it sporadically over the last couple of decades, and I absolutely love the concept of it. I just think that if you’re doing NaNoWriMo for the wrong reasons, it may do more harm than good. So let’s get into it. Here are the top five reasons you absolutely shouldn’t do NaNoWriMo.
(Note: The first year I participated, I started on the 8th of November, so if you haven’t started yet and you think you’d enjoy the experience, it’s definitely not too late!)
1. Because it will be easier to write my novel when I’m part of a group.
The great thing about being part of any writing community, including both Writer Unboxed and NaNoWriMo, is that there are other people there with the same goals and dreams and oddities as you. Hanging out on the NaNo Forums is almost like going to a writing conference without the need to buy tickets, leave the house, or even put on pants. But here’s the sad truth of the matter:
A group won’t help you write your novel.
Being part of a group of writers can be encouraging, but no one else is going to do the writing for you. Every year, thousands upon thousands of NaNo participants spend more time writing forum posts asking for encouragement, or bemoaning their lack of progress, than they do working on their novel.
It won’t be easier to write your novel when you’re part of a group. You may get more encouragement and feel more engaged in a writing community than usual, but you will also have a great many more distractions and chances for procrastination.
2. Because I’ll be able to focus exclusively on my novel for a whole month.
Life happens. All the time. And those of us with jobs and families and friends and hobbies and other commitments always struggle to put aside time for writing. As much as it would be nice to think that with NaNoWriMo comes the freedom to put life on hold and write all the time, nothing else in your life actually changes.
Plus, November in the USA is a month full of preparation for Thanksgiving, when hordes of interstate family members arrive on your doorstep demanding sacrifices of turkey, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie and then complain incessantly about the quality of the food, while preventing you from doing anything you would prefer to be doing. (Disclaimer: My understanding of Thanksgiving is based entirely on bad sitcoms.) Meanwhile, here in Australia, the weather has just turned from “mildly warm” to “it’s so hot that if you think too hard your brain may burst into flames.” So not only will you not have more time during November than usual, you may actually find you have less.
If you can’t focus exclusively on your novel any other time of the year, you won’t be able to focus exclusively on your novel during November. Expecting the world to miraculously make more time for you because you’re writing is just setting yourself up for misery.
3. Because I’ll write 50,000 words in a month, instead of my usual two or three thousand.
That’s great! Best of luck with that. I mean it. Just tell me one thing: How?
Unless you’re willing and able to completely change your life, your priorities, and your commitments during the month of November (which some people do), it’s unlikely that you’ll be able to increase your writing output by 2000%.
According to the “rules” of NaNoWriMo, you’re supposed to start a brand new project and write 50,000 words to “win”. But there’s a little-known secret about the rules.
No one comes to your house to make sure you’re following them.
If you want to keep working on your current project, go for it. If you want to set yourself the goal of writing more or fewer than 50,000 words, no one can stop you. You have the power to use the benefits of NaNoWriMo to your advantage, without being constrained by the rules.
But the fact is, if you normally only write a couple of thousand words in a month, you won’t write 50,000 words in November. Don’t set yourself up to fail. And don’t expect miracles just because you joined a website. Instead, look at your usual output and your schedule for the month, and design your own stretch target.
4. Because in December, I’ll be able to get published.
I’m sure I don’t even need to say this, but…
No. Just… no.
Word on the street is that this is the reason many authors, agents, and publishers despise NaNoWriMo. In all fairness to NaNo itself, the website is very clear on the fact that the work you do in November is not going to be ready for publication on December 1st. But every year, a slew of NaNo manuscripts are self-published in the first couple of weeks of December, and literary agents are inundated with poorly written query letters.
Firstly, unless you’re writing MG or (possibly) YA, your 50,000 words does not a novel make. An adult novel is rarely shorter than 80,000 words. (Yes, I know there are exceptions. They’re exceptions.) So the first thing you’ll need to do when you “win” NaNoWriMo is to finish writing your novel.
Secondly, perhaps there are people out there who can churn out an entire novel in 30 days and have it be perfect. But I’ve yet to come across one. What you’ve got at the end of November is a first draft. Or part of a first draft. That draft needs to sit and fester a while. Then it needs to be revised, rewritten, edited, exorcised, yelled at, threatened with fire, and revised some more. Only after that will it be ready to seek a home somewhere.
There are many novels out there, both self-published and traditionally published, that started their lives as NaNovels. But they weren’t published in December of the year they were written. If that’s your reason for signing up to NaNoWriMo, you’re setting yourself up for failure.
5. Because you want to pick up chicks by telling them you’re a novelist.
What do I know? Maybe that is a good reason.
Are you doing NaNoWriMo this year? Have you done it in the past? What do you think are the best reasons you should participate?
[coffee]
Jo Eberhardt is a writer of speculative fiction, mother to two adorable boys, and lover of words and stories. She lives in rural Queensland, Australia, and spends her non-writing time worrying that the neighbor’s cows will one day succeed in sneaking into her yard and eating everything in her veggie garden.
I run a writers’ group and I always encourage them to do Nano – and I always follow up that encouragement with many of the things you’ve mentioned.
Nano is good for ONE thing: putting your internal editor to sleep. Once you realize you have to crank out 50k words, you realize (slowly, likely) that you have to ignore all your instincts to examine each paragraph as you write it. Unless you have absolutely nothing else to do, of course.
Nano basically trains you to write like a professional. First, vomit it all onto the page, regardless of how bad it smells. Then clean up everything that isn’t wonderful. This is the part where you gain confidence that you actually *can* vomit up wonderful things.
I’m sure others have learned other things from Nano, but in my experience, this is it. Oh, this and coffee is more essential than blood. Those two things.
I’m doing NaNo this year – for the umpteenth time – although I don’t always finish. My first NaNo novel did get published – like 6 years after I finished it! I find it really nice to have a goal – publish that goal on my blog – and then stick to it. Much easier for me personally when there are a ton of other people aiming for the same goal.
Wow, was this a great post or what? Brave Jo! I know NaNo works for some, but I agree wholeheartedly with everything you say why not to do it. I’m not a NaNo participant because of one reason you cite: “Life happens.” Serious writers have to write while life is happening at its normal speed and demand. And as “life happens” it’s a creative benefit to absorb all those wonderful observations, affections, frustrations, disappointments, etc. into our writing. Closing off the world and dashing out a set number of words against an artificial deadline was never my thing. I think the most productive strategy is the desire to do honest and inspired writing every week and make that journey a pleasure.
Thank you for this post! I’ve never participated in NaNo, and honestly, I’ve developed a deep aversion to it (based, surely, on my own insecurities). It feels a bit like the Valentine’s Day of the writing world–an artificial holiday with societal pressure to celebrate. In my experience, it’s a time when people who aren’t writers the rest of the year decide to simply sit down and churn out a novel, because that’s all it takes, right? So what is wrong with me as a writer that it takes me *years* to develop an idea into the 90,000+ words I’d be willing to share with others? If I were really serious, I’d be “winning” NaNo every month!
The reasons you list above help me understand the assumptions that people (especially non-writers) make around NaNo. And it’s a good reminder that, ahem, it’s not all about me and my fears, hopes, and dreams. I’ll still go back to quietly ignoring NaNo, sticking to the goals I’ve already set for myself, but at least now I have some context for the comments I tend to take personally when they’re not!
I did NANO the last 5 years and made the 50K-word goal. This year I’m not doing NANO for the reason that 3 of those 5 novels are not published yet. It takes a long time to edit, rewrite, repeat for the umpteenth time to make it ready for publication. If the main goal for the NANO is to make it a habit to write everyday, I’m fine. I did start another novel on Nov. 1 just to see how it goes and made it to 3514 words last night without joining NANO plus I worked on my blogs too. Definitely not joining NANO this year.
Jo–I think you have spoken truth to delusion. I suppose setting your sites on banging out a novel in a month can be harmless, but you have made clear why that’s not necessarily true.
In this regard, I feel a sense of kinship with you this morning, for your having taken a contrarian stand. I was just deleted from a Facebook group for expressing doubt that indie authors who publish seven or eight novels a year can be going much beyond formulas. My comments were denounced as “insulting” and “crap,” etc. So much for the free exchange of ideas.
Thanks again for your post.
Hey, Barry.
Seven or eight novels a year???? How is that humanly possible? Even if I had the luxury of doing nothing but sitting in front of my computer from sunup to sundown, seven days a week, I could not crank out that many. I have written fourteen over a twenty-year span, and that is about the max of my stamina. Sounds to me like they did you a favor asking you to leave that group, as I have not read these books, but have suspicions they are not award-winning novels!!
Hello and thanks for your post. I get it. In fact, yesterday, instead of writing as part of NaNoWriMo, I posted to my blog a 400-word piece about the pressure I feel from participation in the event:
On NaNoWriMo
POSTED ON NOVEMBER 2, 2018
Probably as some repressed form of protest, I cleaned the windows on the lower floor of my house instead of writing even one word on the first day of NaNoWriMo 2018. And yet, the day before (on October 31), I felt ready to begin, in earnest, the very next morning. With the looming, I mean exciting, month-long writing-intensive event, I had cleaned my house (except for the windows), I had tackled the usual daily household tasks leaving nothing on my to-do list and had even handled and depleted any residual pieces of paperwork. I prepped with notes, cleared my calendar, conducted some research, created my characters’ profiles, and located my setting. These files sat minimized on my Mac’s dock. It was all there. But, it wasn’t calling me.
The thing is, I am the A- type of person who needs a clean slate, a free-state of mind, a clear palette and a clean canvas on which to begin a new project. Practical life aside, I have so many ideas running errant with wonky-edged craft scissors through my head at any one time (I am not special among creatives; this, I hear, is the norm), I grieve slightly for the projects falling in a straight line behind the wanna-be leader in the forefront, the “have-to” —much like laundry on the practical side of life.
Thus, dedicating a whole month’s worth of TIME* is perhaps more commitment than I am ready to make. I have been known to write for seven-hour stretches and longer. My longest recorded time rests at ten hours within one sitting. These scores reflect the writing of the 74,000-word novel, REGRESSION, that I recently finished, with editor’s notes, beta readers’ notes, re-writes and all. Queries remain an ongoing project.
And as I satisfy one or more of the arty pursuits vying for my attention, I will likely also build upon this year’s NaNoWriMo with an unspecified word count for [the] BROWNSTONE.
*TIME: I place this human construct on the practical side of life. And, although the creative nature within me generally rules my consciousness, TIME intrudes long enough to keep me just moments away from true free spiritedness. It is this trichotomy that fosters continued conflict among the following areas: One ~ Tasks I am good at: planning, plotting, scheduling, and time management. Two ~ Difficulties with: maintaining routines, and accepting limitations. And, Three ~ Wishing for: full fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants spontaneity.
http://www.debkbeebe.wordpress.com
I did Nano once and “won”. None of what I wrote was worth keeping.
I don’t write the way writing coaches want us to. I don’t work to just get the words on the page. Speed isn’t in my method.
I spend a month outlining a novel. When I start writing, I edit along the way. I reread a lot as I go. And I can still get over a thousand words a day. Words that actually form sentences, that form paragraphs, that form scenes…you get the idea.
Nano just doesn’t work for me. Bless those it does work for.
This is my second time participating in NaNoWriMo. The first time, I started out with the attitude of “I’ll see how it goes.” I wrote a draft of a second book in a series and finished in three weeks. If I hadn’t, it would have been tough. I entertain for Thanksgiving and host three November birthdays. It taught me that I can commit to writing every day and it can become a habit. The rush of finishing was pretty dang great too.
This year, I am starting out with the same attitude. I won’t beat myself up if I quit, but I’d love to feel that rush of finishing. After two days of writing, I’m hooked. I want to find out what happens to the characters in my story! That’s the fun of writing, isn’t it?
My experience was in-between. I did learn that you can turn off the inner editor (difficult when you’ve done it for a living), and I found all sorts of good bits that I barely remembered writing. On the other hand I had toss about twenty thousand words and then took six years to bash the book into shape.
Jo, my NaNoWriMo mojo has always been no-no, no-no to me, because it seemed—from my ignorant outsider’s perspective, to be unbridled word-spew mania. I do enough of that at home.
But I have found my novels to be good for picking up chicks. You can fit between 12–18 peeping chicks on the top of a novel, depending on the print size, and literature always seems to calm them down. (Though a full-grown chicken will eat you if you turn your back on it and it’s able to knock you to the ground, so beware.)
Thanks for the chuckle, Tom.
My pleasure, Maryann!
Thank you, thank you, thank you, Jo. I have never done NaNo for various reasons, the main one being I was always too busy preparing for a holiday show at the local art center where I was the theatre director for many years. One cannot schedule rehearsals, be at rehearsals 4 nights a week. Plan a set and lights. Coach actors, as well as maybe learn lines if I didn’t have enough players, and write. In fact, I hardly wrote for myself in November and December most years.
Even though I had those good excuses, I always felt like I wasn’t part of “the gang” if I didn’t at least try to participate in NaNo, so I was going to give it a shot this year. However, after reading your blog post, I realized I was doing it for the wrong reasons. Plus, I’ve always wondered about all the time spent on the NaNo forums that could be spent writing. Now I know I can give NaNo a pass and still be part of the writing community. :-)
I’ll go on the record here as saying I hate NaNoWriMo. It makes artificial something that cannot be boiled down to simple formulas.
Writing requires pruning. 90% (usually 95%+) of writing is rewriting. To think that succeeding as a writer is about banging out a first draft at XX-words/day is to miss the point. And that’s not to say anything about how much time a writer should spend reading, ruminating, accumulating living experience to bring better gems to those sentences or phrases, or even here and there a better word, that make the stories better.
That all said, I think if you have never written a draft all the way through and need a push to help you see that *you can do it*, then NaNo is invaluable. The team support and the writing culture in the community is terrific. I have to thank NaNo for helping me kick off the novel I recently published. Though that was 6 years ago and I have been working on that novel on and off for 6 years, and it has taken much anti-NaNo sentiment to help dispel the urge to jump on shiny ideas # 3, 4, and 5 and instead commit to draft 4, 5, 6, and 7, and on.
Happy writing, Jo! I don’t get on this blog as much as I used to but when I see your posts I always love what you write about.
am doing na-no-later-oh… because seriously, a guy must’ve decided to plunk it down between all the busy busy holidays. No sooner are we finished with getting kids into costumes than it’s time to start baking and harvest the cranberries. And then the tree! and for the sake of our vibrant economy don’t forget national shopping day (na-sho-da). We’re gonna host a in-the-midst-of-bleak-midwinter writing month when there is seriously nothing else to do but hibernate and scrape ice off the window.