Book of the Month

Halloween has come and gone for another year. It’s November now, which means it’s NaNoWriMo time! That, for the uninitiated, stands for National Novel Writers’ Month. Every year since 1999, aspiring (and existing) novelists frantically put pen to paper – or finger to keyboard, depending on your approach – in the hope that this event would be the inspiration that produces a novel.

The deal with NaNo is, we’re supposed to write 50,000 words over the course of the month, or roughly 1,667 words per day. You’re not strictly required to write every single day, although it sure does put the pressure on for the next session if you’ve missed one of those ~2k word days. I kicked off NaNo by writing a little over three thousand words! …on a short story, completely unrelated to this or any novel.

Does it actually work? For some, certainly. The event has grown in popularity, to the point where roughly half a million people participate each year. Of that number, between 10% and 15% reach their goal. Now, that might sound like a discouraging number on the surface. But take heart! Compare that to the overall stats – that is to say, writers who decide to write a novel regardless of what time of year, NaNoWriMo aside – and it looks a little more impressive. According to various sources*, of all who endeavor to begin a novel, around 3% actually finish it.

* (Not sure what this is based on, but it is frequently quoted by numerous sources across the interwebs. Possibly anecdotal, but there might be some sort of actual research done on the subject).

So… 10-15% versus 3% sounds pretty good, right? Maybe worth taking a shot at this NaNo thing? I guess it makes sense; a 30-day deadline forces you to buckle down and actually write every day, or near enough to that, to make a serious dent in a full-length novel. Realistically, if you wrote just 250 words a day for a year you’d be looking at north of 91,000 words. That’s a pretty thick novel, right there.

Now… the point of this is to write a novel. We’ve covered that. But that means writing more of the same project every day. Add to what you did yesterday, add more to that tomorrow, and so on. I think this is where some probably run into trouble. The average person probably writes well over a hundred thousand words a year, scattered across hundreds or thousands of social media posts, texts, emails, and so on. None of this contributes to your novel, of course. But the point is you might have the determination to write something substantial, based solely on word count.

At the end of the day, if having a strict timeline is the sort of thing that will motivate you to work on something every day and see it through, I sincerely hope you do tackle this November tradition. I would love to hear stories about how you dove in, stuck it out, and crossed over to December with 50k or more words under your belt. Even if you come up short and finish with, say, 31,284 words. That’s a victory, not a loss. That just means you’ve got a big chunk of that novel behind you, and enough to show for your time that hopefully you’ll keep going and finish it off anyway.

As for me, I’m working on something for NaNo. I can’t promise I’ll hit 50k, but I’m going to try. Here’s wishing the best of inspiration and dedication to those who wade into these murky waters, whether for the first time or the twenty first.

As always, thanks for reading and following along here. Until next time, stay safe, talk soon!

-JP