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Reflections On NaNoWriMo
In 1999, a group of 21 friends in San Francisco, California, had this wild idea to devote the month of July to writing novels. They got together with food and caffeine and goaded each other into writing books in a one month span. They had a blast, and thus was NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) born.
The next year, with a new web-site up and the event moved to November (who wants to be stuck inside during one of the few months of the year that Frisco has nice weather?), 140 people signed up, including folks from outside the United States. For the third year, they expected maybe 150 people; 5000 signed up for the NaNoWriMo 2001, severely overloading the modest system they had to handle the participants.
By that time, people were taking notice. Articles about the event were appearing in such publications as the Los Angeles Times. It was no longer just a fun little gathering of a few crazy friends; it was on the verge of a phenomenon.
2002 saw a much improved website for the 14,000 participants. 2003 found 25,000 people signing up to try their hands at writing novels in one month. In 2004, 42,000, and in 2005, 59,000 people participated, with 9769 of them finishing.
Which brings us to 2006; while the number of current participants isn't listed, they were expecting some 75,000 this year. So far as of this writing, 6500 have posted their manuscripts for official verification of winning status. The current word count for all participants is over 861 million words.
Since November 1st.
Enjoying a good challenge, I signed up for NaNoWriMo this year. The rules are simple; you cannot start writing the novel until 12:01 a.m. on November 1st, and to win you must complete 50,000 or more words by 11:59 p.m. on November 30th. For you math majors out there, that's a minimum of 1666.66 words per day, every day, for the month.
What do the winners get? A certificate they can print on their own printer, and some downloadable winners icons. But wait; there's more! What the winners really get is the fun of writing the novel, and the satisfaction of knowing they did something that most people will never do. They get encouragement and advice from others who are likewise writing stories, and the motivation of a real deadline. They get to be part of something that is turning into a real international event, and it costs nothing but your time to enter.
I prepared for NaNoWriMo by spending some time outlining my story before the start date. Per the rules, I didn't begin the story until November 1st, and I completed my novel, The Daedalus Child, by my birthday on November 22nd. My final word tally is 59,979 words. This was a story I'd been thinking about for a number of years, and one I've even had a couple of false starts on. Letting NaNoWriMo provide an impetus to finally codify the plot and write the story made a difference, and while the first draft has some problems, I have a story I can work on revising.
Will I do it again? Most likely. I had a blast, and it's really a "no risk" event. The point of NaNoWriMo isn't to compete against other writers; it's to compete against the deadline and the self-defeating traits that stop most people from ever starting. It doesn't matter if you finish your novel the first week of November, or if you load it for verification at the last minute. Winning is winning, and my experience this year was that writers encourage each other. It takes nothing away from one if others finish as well, and in many cities, you can find regular gatherings of participants to encourage each other at "Write-ins".
By the time you read this, NaNoWriMo 2006 will be over. If, however, you've had that story idea brewing in your head for years; if you keep telling yourself that SOMEDAY you'll write a book; if you've ever just wanted to try it, then I encourage you to consider signing up for NaNoWriMo 2007. You have nothing to lose, and experience to gain.
Be sure to check out their website at http://www.nanowrimo.org/. If you search for author "Hoomi", that will be me.
Happy holidays to all, with my best wishes for the New Year.
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