Lina Lamont Fan Club by Nissa Annakindt: Is Nanowrimo a good way to write a novel?

Thursday, October 11, 2007

Is Nanowrimo a good way to write a novel?

November is National Novel Writing Month, aka Nanowrimo, and after having tried it twice, I'm game to go one more time, but I wonder if this is a good way to work.

The idea is to write many hours during November with the idea of completing a novel, defined as 50,000 words. Actually by modern standards that's more like half a novel, or 3/4ths of a novel....

Nano-writing may produce a good word count, but I wonder.... Does it appeal more to our desire toward instant gratification and the quick fix? Is the kind of novel-writing we do during Nano the kind career novelists do? Nano-writing is kind of like taking a month off to pursue a hobby--- you leave the housework undone, eat only fast food, and some people even write on the novel at work.

But when the month is done, you breathe a sigh of relief and start doing housework, cooking dinner, and searching for the new job you need to replace the one you lost doing Nano.

A real writer, though, writes six days a week all year long. It's a regular part of their daily life. And if they get stuck at some point in their novel, they may slow down in order to be sure they are getting it right. In Nano one is more likely to plunge again madly to keep up with the word count. Which is a good way to paint yourself into a corner and get your novel stuck permanently in an unfixable state.

That being said, I'm doing Nano, but with a difference. I may be checking my word count daily, but the more important thing is steady and usable output. And of course the idea of writing a 50,000 page novel is out. That's too short to be published and I don't want to write 'The End' to something that needs 40,000 words added!

Of course, this means that I'm not going to 'win' Nano--- even if I make the word count I won't be finished--- but I'd rather have a finished novel than a 'win'.
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