It's day one of NaNoWriMo, and 129 novelists in the Nashville area (including myself) and nearly 500,000 people worldwide, on the website alone, are sitting down to write. Some have planned until there was nothing else to be done but write. Some sat down with a vague inkling of a story and will let the fire of their fingers guide them through their tale. Some have plantsed, and have the barebones prepared before adding the flesh. All of us have the same goal: 50,000 words in one month, a novel.
Some of you are confused. NaNoWriMo? What language is that?
It's an acronym that means National Novel Writing Month, a movement started by a small group of writers in 1999 for people who love the written word to come together and motivate each other to produce a first draft. Now, all these years later, it's an international movement to do the very same thing.
Some people turn their nose up at such a project. Why do people need a certain month to write a novel, when career novelists do several a year? It's surely a sign of weakness, to need encouragement and inspiration.
I happen to disagree. I think that it's purely coincidental that we all decide to do this at the same time- if you write a book during NaNoWriMo, it's because you wanted to write a book. It doesn't mean you worked less than anyone else that wrote their novel in, say, February. It means you set a goal and you met it, because you decided it was time. There's no shame there.
And you meet all sorts of interesting people when you use social media to connect to other NaNo-goers.
It gives me a clear, set goal.
While it seems like a lot, 50,000 words only turns into 1,667 (roughly) a day. That's incredibly easy, if you're motivated. It can be hard on a day to day basis, because I still have class and work, but at the same time I always know that I can spend the weekend catching up if I need to.
Other than a word count, I can do whatever I want.
This year, I'm actually not writing a novel. I'm writing 50,000 words worth of drabble based on a set of characters I came up with in creative writing club. They're people with superpowers that aren't so glamorous, and lives that are even less so. I'm going to let them tell me the story, piece by piece. If I wanted do, I could write a movie script or a play, I could do a book of poetry or a full fledged fantasty.
Friends and family can hold me accountable.
When I set myself a goal and post it on social media, I'm always surprised at the amount of people who keep up with my progress, and it's incredibly humbling to have to admit I haven't done my allotted amount of writing. They get excited with me, and it motivates me to keep working.
I want to give the world my story.
I'm a student, I'm an employee, I do roller derby and I'm part of clubs and I'm busy. This is an excuse for me to take more time than I usually would and dedicate it to my writing, because I want people to hear this story. I want this story to make a difference. I don't think there's anything wrong with setting aside a month to do that, even if it's part of a movement.
More than all of these things, I'm completely free to do whatever I want to do. If I wanted to do this in December, then I could make my own kind of celebration of words, but I like being a part of the huge movement that want to write novels. And yes, I know it's not a finished book, and it will be 49,999 words that I'll most likely cut. That's the beauty of it. It will be all those words closer to getting it finished.
I hope to see you at the finish line!
