National Novel Writing Month - this is not an advertisement or endorsement

National Novel Writing Month, NaNoWriMo for short, is an idea that probably requires some mention. The idea, simply, is you write a novel in a month. Generally, these are not long novels. 50,000 words. This equates to about 150 pages. Not long. Pulp length. I like the length but at the same time I am still out on the concept. On various blogs this came up several times as November is the “official” NaNoWriMo.

Now, I have written a novel in a month. It came in around 80,000 words. That’s a decent size; but keep in mind that when I am in the groove, I write a lot very fast. I also resort to common themes and common elements and, as such, that is where I think NaNoWriMo is a bad idea.

From what I’ve seen (and read) if you don’t have a pretty significant and solid plan in advance of the start of NaNoWriMo you are pretty much setting yourself up for failure. However, the notion of prepping the project seems counter to the spirit of writing a novel from start to finish in a single month. Granted, I don’t really fall into the traps of popular press (like International Speak Like a Pirate Day), but the notion of a whole lot of people writing a novel in a month is pretty fascinating.

To paraphrase a blogger/author I can’t remember who (Tim Pratt probably), it’s a good start to actually writing a novel.

Chances are, in the month, you will only have started the process of writing a novel. They take a lot of time and commitment with the outcome being that you spend more than a month really writing a novel.

Take this Philosophy of Literature class I am in. We’ve spent four months merely to have the basic outline of a screenplay/film novel completed. Granted, in many respects I’ve slowed my process down to not sit too far in advance (or at present behind) the rest of the class and because school is taking a pretty wicked toll on my time. But four months to create a solid outline is a long time. With that said, I think that this process has actually taught me a lot (I was semi-aware of) in the writing and novel-making process and the new outcome to the outline/screenplay/novel will be far removed from what Dennis had initially said he wanted.

Critique me for doing what you said and watch me roar.

Anyway, I can’t imagine wanting to write a novel in a month, again. It is hard work. You put in a lot of hours. You don’t go back and revise. There are large plot holes. And in some cases, it becomes rather biopic. You start to write about what is intimate to you… meaning, you do what a lot of novice writers do and pretty much write a fictionalized biography.

The fictionalized biography can work. That is what was suggested at the beginning of the semester for our screenplays/outlines. People have rewritten their lives, successfully, and sold it as fiction. F. Scott Fitzgerald did that in the Beautiful and Damned. Buy the book, read about his life. However, novice is a key word in that.

Yes, you need to write what you know; but, writing what you know doesn’t have to, or need to, equate to writing about you – specifically. I think that successful fictionalists write about common experience in a fantasy setting. Don’t take that as swords and dragons, but rather as a made-up environment, setting, and story. Have you experienced love? Great, you can write about it in a setting a thousand, thousand miles away from where you live. Have you experienced a broken down car? You an write about that too.

The real skill is taking the events and combining them in an unrecognizable way that tells a story and shares what you are trying to share. Can you do that in a month? Sure. But, to precede that, you have to have a solid idea, probably have created a semi-solid outline, and then plan on just writing for that month in order to accomplish a solid first draft. But, you will have to do a lot of work in revision which, for many authors, would’ve been done in process and caused the novel to have taken several months, a year, or several years to accomplish.

Anyway, to parrot other authors, I think it’s a good start; but no, I am not going to participate. The writing process is personal. It is something I do. It is a part of me. And, truth told, NaNoWriMo is a marketing ploy. You can walk into almost any bookstore and buy the guys kit and materials that will help you write your novel in a month. He is making schloads of money off of the public. Chances are, though, that very few to no one actually publishes the novel they wrote in that month. If they claim to, I would suggest that the truth of the matter is that they did some pretty big revisions and their finished product looks nothing like the original.

That is all I have to say about that.

John Hattaway | Denny Crane | Bond. James Bond

p.s. Thanks Steph for sending the link. If you are interested in the process you can go here to find out more.