I majored in English:Creative Writing at Cal State Long Beach and really got into short story reading and writing. Whenever I told people I was an English major they usually asked if I liked writing novels and I said, "No, I really enjoy the short story form a lot more." And that is true.
However, I just signed up for NATIONAL NOVEL WRITING MONTH, giving me the entire month of November to write a novel. I know that you have a bunch of questions and to be honest, so do I, but I'll start here first:
Why do you have to sign up for this?
You don't HAVE to sign up with their dorky website to participate. Do you need to sign up for a website to celebrate black history month? The website is a hub, a support system and forum, and it has a few other neat features, like a place to upload excerpts, and keep a running word count/ status meter. Which brings us to…
How long is a novel anyways?
For National Novel Writing Month, you've got thirty days to write 50,000 words. Let me break that down for you- 12 pt, courier font, double spaced, equals very close to 250 words a page. 50,000 words is about 200 pages by that standard. Not a Stephen King book or Grisham novel, but 200 pages isn't exactly a 12 page short story about combining Nyquil and Dayquil.*
Wow. Do they use some sort of goofy abbreviation for National Novel Writing Month?
Yes. It is referred to as NaNoWriMo; and from what I've gleaned, if you are participating, you are a WriMo (I don't understand that one).
Here's a tip from the administrators that is perfect for me-**
Tell everyone you know that you're writing a novel in November. This will pay big dividends in Week Two, when the only thing keeping you from quitting is the fear of looking pathetic in front of all the people who've had to hear about your novel for the past month. Seriously. Email them now about your awesome new book. The looming specter of personal humiliation is a very reliable muse.
They also tell you to not edit any of your writing as you are going, that you should use December as your month to polish the novel you have just written.
What happens if you don't finish?
Nothing- the same that happens if you DO finish. There is no incentive except personal joy having completed something like this.
As national novel writing month has gained steam in the last few years, garnering more and more participants every year, more and more people finish and inherently, more and more people are getting their month-long-written novels actually published.
What they don't tell you is that getting things ready to send to publishers is another month long process that is just as challenging and time-consuming a process as writing the thing.
I will keep you updated. Holy shit, I bet you people CAN'T. FUCKING. WAIT.
Until November, when very likely you won't hear from me too much.
* Fun(?) fact: I actually wrote a story in college about a guy that gets super powers because he combines Nyquil and Dayquil. I thought I was a genius at the time, but I look back on it and cccrrrrriiiinnngggggeeeeeee.
** I've always wondered if my personal motivation could be described in a few sentences and there it is. Almost everything I've ever done, I've completed out of the sheer terror of not wanting to tell people I gave up. We'll see if this will apply to writing 50,000 words in 30 days.
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