NaNoWhoNow? A Big Fat Squirming List Of NaNoWriMo "Dos" And "Don'ts"
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Writing a novel is having a baby. A lot of pushing and pulling, and by the time you’re done the floor is covered in blood and amniotic fluid, and then somebody’s got to shove a bulb up somebody’s nose to clean out all the snot, and then there’s the crying, and then you have to pay for college.
Wait, no. That can’t be right.
Writing a novel is like building a chair! Yes. Yes, that’s it. It’s a craft in which you saw and sand, measure and plan, and next thing you know you’ve accidentally slipped and pressed your face up against a belt sander, and your nose goes sliding off into oblivion, and now you’re the noseless freak that the whole neighborhood makes fun of, and anytime they walk by you they do that “I Got Your Nose” shit with their thumbs and two fingers and then you’re forced to plot their murders…
Damn, that doesn’t feel accurate, either.
Writing a novel is like captaining a ship.
Writing a novel is like knitting a sweater for a unicorn?
Writing a novel is like fighting a cyborg bear!
No, no, and no.
Writing a novel, as it turns out, is like writing a novel.
And, if you’re engaging on that month-long expedition into the word-choked dark called NaNoWriMo, then you’re about to do that very thing. I don’t know that you’re so brave and intrepid I’d compare you to Admiral Byrd or whomever, but writing a novel is a pretty crazy process: lots of squalling, many hurrahs, and frankly, when you’re done the floor really is covered in blood and amniotic fluid.
(At least the way I do it.)
I received a handful of emails asking, “Hey, are you going to blog anything else about NaNoWriMo?” And I thought, “Uhh, no, I guess not.” Except, now I am. In the past, I’ve been a little critical of the NaNoWriMo setup, but I’ve never been critical of those who endeavor to actually push through this process and birth their struggling word-baby into the world. You people writing the books? You rule. Literally. You rule your own little fiefdoms and islands, your own city blocks and households, your own sky castles and undersea empires. You rule because you’re the writer.
So, I thought: hey, maybe I’ll do up a quick list of dos and don’ts. (I always want to write that “do’s” and “don’t's,” but that looks assy, doesn’t it?) Some quick bumpers on the walls to maybe help keep your bumper car aligned — guardrails to stop you from flinging yourself into the wordless oblivion, into the yawning chasm of a no-novel existence.
Ready? Get ready to rock NaNoWriMo’s face off. Or at least its nose. Like with a belt sander.
Do Make Discipline Your Takeaway
You want to know how most writers fuck up? Seriously, here it is — the fatal flaw of the writer: we are lazy no-goodniks, forever hopping from project to project. We’re like meth addicts, our dopamine centers blown to ragged tatters, forever in search of the next high. Except, writing can’t be about the high. It can’t be about that one great day of word count. It also has to be about all the shitty ones. What NaNoWriMo will give you is discipline: the ability to staple-gun your shit-can to a chair every single day and pound the keyboard the same way a beat cop pounds pavement. It can’t get done unless it gets done.
Do Not Believe That Haste Is A Critical Ingredient To Your Word Soup
And yet, NaNoWriMo sets a very arbitrary pace: 50k in 30 days, or ~1,667 words per day. It’s certainly doable — I tend to write 2-3k a day. But I was only able to do that steadily after years of freelancing, and that’s when I have a deadline (and money) waiting at the end. Writing a novel can be a different creature, and it isn’t so easily boxed into the same schedule. Most novels I’ve written took me about three months to write from start to finish — still not a bad stretch of time, but certainly not 30 days. So, if you find that NaNoWriMo’s pace doesn’t fit your own — then stop caring about NaNoWriMo, and start caring only about the novel. Your goal is the novel. Your goal is not to “win” an Internet experiment-slash-experience. If you need three months, take ‘em. If you need six, take ‘em. If you need eight… well, let’s try for six, okay?
Do Take Time To Smell The Word Count (And Do A Little Planning)
Writing isn’t about writing. It’s a misnomer — a myth. The actual writing, meaning the pen-to-paper fingers-to-keyboard part, actually comprises a very small portion of the writer’s life. So much else exists between those spaces: planning, marketing, selling, rewriting, editing, researching, and so forth. Assuming that NaNoWriMo is very much about a taste of the job and the life, then for yourself and for the novel I’d recommend taking time in your day away from the writing to concentrate on some other elements. Hit your word count mark for the day, then attend to other matters your novel may require. Put your back into a little planning for tomorrow’s word count. Start writing up a sample query letter and treatment to keep yourself on task. Do up some character notes. Think in beats, scenes, sequences, acts. Then, when all that is said and done? Sit back, relax, and enjoy what you have accomplished so far. Take pride. Eat candy.
Don’t Stop Writing, Neither For Hell Nor High Water
And yet, despite this side prep, don’t stop writing. Writers can easily get lost in the prep. Lift your head from the murk! Clear your brain of the crazy bees. And always, forever anon, sit your ass down and write. This novel isn’t going to write itself. Unless it is? And if it is, then you need to tell me where you bought that awesome novel-writing robot. I seek to purchase a clone of NovelBot for a hefty sum. And if NovelBot one day goes nuclear and attacks the United States, I reserve the right to scowl at you. I’d sue you, but it won’t matter, because the entire infrastructure of our country — the legal system included — will be surely defunct thanks to the cruel reign of the word-crunching NovelBot. Damn you, robot.
Do The Work, And Realize That It Is, Indeed, Work
Surrounding NaNoWriMo is an existing giddiness, an airy and intrepid spirit — and that’s a good thing. Yes. Have fun with it. Smile now, you poor bastards because you may not be so giggly and gassy after two weeks have gone by. The reality is, writing is work. Like, work-work. It can at times be as exacting and punishing as dentistry, and sometimes you might feel like you’re a Chilean miner trapped in the deepest, darkest earth. This is, contrary to how it feels, a really good revelation. If you go into this thinking that writing a novel will be fun from day one until day 30, you’re fucked right in the ear. This isn’t a log flume ride, pal. This is a mountain climb. And climbing a mountain is a hard slog. And you might fall. Or encounter mountain lions. Or even cyborg bears. Point is, be excited for the thrill, but be ready for rectal misery.
Don’t Believe That 50,000 Words Is A Proper Novel
Writing a novel is work, and writing 50k of a novel is a lot of work — but it isn’t a complete work unless we’re talking middle-grade or young adult. For the most part, a novel is going to need to be somewhere around 70-90,000 words. Which means, uh-oh, you’ve got a lot more work to do. Now, this means one of three things — a) you create a complete 50,000 word “novel” now, then go back in and flesh it out and beef it up; b) you write 50,000 words now and realize that you’re going to, in the subsequent month, hammer out another 20-40k; or c) try to write a 70-90k novel in 30 days, which is all well and good until you pull a mental hammy and shit your brain-diapers and end up having to eat mushed-up peas and bananas for the next six months. Again, do what needs doing for the novel, not for the “contest.”
Do Consider This A Zero Draft
I consider a first draft a proper draft. It is your first completed draft, a draft that doesn’t need to be good, but needs to be utterly whole. Let this NaNoWriMo draft escape the pressures of that. Let it be a “zero draft.” It’s allowed to exist a little bit unbaked — soft in the middle, uncertain, still finding its feet like a goo-slick calf. That’s okay. Take the pressure off. You have time. Unless you’re dying from some terrible disease. And if you are, then, uhhh. Sorry? Good luck? Here, have a Hallmark card!
In Fact, Do Think Of This As A Very Powerful Outline Or Story Bible
Write this draft like it’s a very deep, intensive outline, story treatment, or story bible. Yes, yes, it’s still a novel, and it’s still a technical draft of your novel — but with the kind of haste and waste you’re going to make churning through this work, you might find yourself better served looking at the end result as a clumsy “first go.” This means it makes a truly excellent and highly-detailed preparatory tool. You take this draft, you finish it, you find the mistakes and mis-steps, then you rewrite the whole damn thing with a deeper devotion toward all those fiddly bits that make a novel truly great — character, dialogue, action, theme, mood. Oh, yeah, and plot. If one thing is going to get its head lopped off on the altar of haste, it’s plot. So, for now? Fuck plot. Just write. This is your outline, after all. A really big, really robust outline.
(Which Means You Don’t Need To Work So Hard This Month)
You say, “I’m writing a novel,” and (for me) that’s a lot of pressure. But you say, “I’m writing a novel that’s really just an outline for an even awesomer and ass-kickier novel,” then — ahhh. Woooo. The shoulders unclench. Your sphincter loosens (but not so much you make a mess on that most critical of implements, your writing chair). You let slip a few drops of happy pee. Now? The pressure’s lessened. This is just a plan. This is just really exacting prep. You’re not foolishly rushing onto the battlefield. This is a battlefield simulation! This is your own X-Men Danger Room. Breathe easy. And learn how to bring down Juggernaut.
Don’t Stop With Your Zero Draft
All that being said, don’t stop with this draft, whether you think of it as a first draft, a zero draft, or a really plump outline. NaNoWriMo is one month, but your novel cannot and should not be contained to a single month. It needs more time. Trust me, it needs more time. You’ve got more drafts to write. Possibly one, two, even ten. You don’t write until November 30th. You write until it’s good. (Or, put differently: drink until she’s pretty.) To continue the alcohol metaphor, it’s like a wine. You uncork it too early, it’s going to taste like piss and vinegar.
Do Embrace The Community
NaNoWriMo’s shining awesomeness comes in the form of being connected to something greater. You’re all embarking on a really weird journey together. Use that. Enjoy the camaraderie. Listen, a writer’s career isn’t formed just on what she can write — it’s formed on who she knows. It’s build in part on the backs of relationships. Make those relationships. Both professional and personal. It will not only give you the morale to keep on kicking, and it won’t only let you boost the spirits of others — but it’ll hopefully create lasting relationships that go well beyond November, 2010.
Don’t Rely On It, However
And yet! The writer’s life is a lonely one. Online relationships are only so real, after all, and your devotion is not to other people. Your priority isn’t social. It’s mental. Your job lurks in the words, not the words you write to encourage others but the words you write on the pages of this beast you call a novel. It can be easy to get caught up in other people’s drama, and the last thing you want to do is duct tape your novel’s fortunes to those who aren’t helping you — so, be a part of the community but know its limits. Know that the only thing that gets the book written is you writing the goddamn book.
Do Take Yourself And Your Work Seriously
Once again I’ll point out that the motif of NaNoWriMo, the prevailing mood, is one of fun — it’s a challenge! It’s a game! Hoot! Gibber! Eeeee! Well, okay, that’s very nice. But my assumption is that you’re serious about wanting to be a write. Otherwise — why do it? If you’re doing it “just to see if you can,” well, hoo-hah for you. Except, I’m not talking to you. You can go now. Shoo. Go on, skedaddle. You, glib dilettante, will soon learn that writing is a devotion, a discipline, a craft (and to some, an art), but it is not a throwaway piece of cake left on the counter for the ants. It’s serious business. And so those engaging in NaNoWriMo, I encourage you to take this seriously and more importantly, take yourself seriously. You are an ass-kicking, neck-throttling word jockey. You command the powers of the verbal elements. You make characters dance, fight, fuck, eat, love and kill. You can set the mood of the room the way most people set the temperature in their house. You are a god here. Accept that mission for what it is: a responsibility.
Do Not Take It So Seriously That You Start Sending It Out To Agents And Editors Immediately, Because That Makes Word Jesus Turn Evil And Doom The World
The one flaw in NaNoWriMo (and why it sometimes earns the ire of professional writers) is that it kind of floods the marketplace a little bit. November 30th rolls around and suddenly you have a world with thousands of new novels birthed screaming into an unkind world, and while that remains a truly sublime act of creation, it also means that you have a lot of writers who don’t have the sense of a tree grub, and these writers decide to abdicate their own sense of work and responsibility by throwing their unformed fetal drafts into the world. They choke the inboxes of agents and editors with their protoplasmic snot-waffle novels and they think, “Gee golly gosh, I’m a real writer now!” Except, they’re not. They’re rosy-cheeked, empty-eyed shitheads. Don’t be that shithead. Don’t just loose your garbage onto an unsuspecting world (which creates more work for agents and editors who already have a hard time finding diamonds in a sewage tank). Take time. Polish your work. Give it six months. Give it a year. Give the novel the air it needs to breathe. Give yourself, as a self-serious novelist, time to realize when this book is ready to roll or (a bigger and more mature revelation) that this book just isn’t “the one” — and that it’s time to write another better book, a book that doesn’t beg to be written only from November 1st to November 30th, a book that can be written whenever your fluttering wordmonkey heart so desires.
About The Author
ChuckWendig
Chuck Wendig is equal parts novelist, screenwriter, and game designer. He is the author of the novels DOUBLE DEAD, BLACKBIRDS, and MOCKINGBIRD. In addition, he's got a metric boatload of writing-related e-books available, including the popular 500 WAYS TO BE A BETTER WRITER. He currently lives in the wilds of Pennsyltucky with wife, dog, and newborn progeny.
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I am not doing nanowrimo, but I am writing a novel now, actually, a shitty girlongirl-time-travel-sex-and-violence extravaganze filled with bile and guns and tits and guts and bitter satire and when it is done, I will sell it. Because I am THAT FUCKING GOOD.
But I wouldn’t be doing it if nanowrimo didn’t exist. A friend challenged me. We are working on the process together. For her, nothing is at stake except finishing something. Me, I have to write something I can sell. And that takes more time.
This is my zero draft.
Wish me luck, Chuck.
@Wood:
I did read your little bit so far, by the way. No matter how hard you try, you can’t really right something truly shitty. Even your most bile-soaked exploitative work rises above, so. You’ll be fine, and yes, it will sell.
You don’t need luck. You just need to finish it.
– c.
That’s some good advice up there! As a writer, I’m an awful procrastinator. Well, to be honest, I’m just a procrastinator in all aspects of life. I work best under pressure and deadlines. That’s why I like Nano. I don’t ever expect to have a complete work done by the end of the month. Hell I never thought once I hit 50k that my novels would be done. They’re done when I feel they’re done, even if it takes me several months after to finish them up. This is my fourth year participating and I have gotten a couple of good works out of the process (after re-reading, editing, rewriting, etc.). I just find it a good catalyst to get my creative juices flowing (which isn’t as messy as it sounds) and I use it to make some new friends who’s eyes don’t glaze over when I start talking about what I’m writing!
GAH! I wrote who’s! How awful. In my defense, I just woke up AND I am awful with self editing internet posts. Yeah..that’s it…
@MaryBeth:
Pshhh, Internet comments are a fairly safe place for small mistakes.
Glad you liked the post!
– c.
I’m working on an RPG (my own!) right now. It’s not a NaNoWriMo project, both because I suspect it’ll top 50K, it ain’t gonna be done this month and it’s not a novel anyway. But hey. At least I’m writing.
That, @Matt, is always the key. “At least I’m writing.”
ABW.
Always
Be
Writing.
Put that coffee down.
Coffee is for writers only. Because if we don’t have our coffee, we will stab you in the eye with a pen.
– c.
Well, tea in my case.
Oh, and the little bit so far has hit 14K now.
[...] the spirit of the Scalzi essay that Andrea linked to, here’s a (slightly profanity-riddled) piece by Chuck Wendig on NaNoWriMo [1]. Like Scalzi’s, most of Wendig’s writing advice is excellent. A lot ruder than [...]
I’m going to ignore the whole ‘zero draft’ thing. :-p I didn’t spend the last 6 weeks tinkering with characters, plot, beats, voice, settings, etc to churn out a massive outline. I’ve already got (as massive a one I’m ever going to get) the outline. I am worried about the fiddly bits. It’s how I roll.
Not saying it won’t need one/ten/a million subsequent drafts. ’cause it will. I always will.
@Kate:
Obviously, ignore any advice that doesn’t work for you —
Mostly, I’m speaking to those people who are truly embracing the, erm, spontaneity of the thing. I can’t tell you how many tweets I’ve seen over the last two weeks — “I don’t know what I’m going to write for NaNo!” So, for those people, hey, let this draft be a zero draft, or a big stress-free outline.
Ultimately, it’s just semantics, anyway. A draft is a draft, good or bad, zero or first or dozenth. It’s all moving toward the end goal of rewriting until it doesn’t suck anymore.
– c.
Nice post. I wish I had read this a couple years ago when I attempted NaNo. If ever there was a writefail it was when I attempted NaNo.
Yeah, me + NaNo didn’t really, erm, work out so hot. We’re still acquaintances, but not really “friends.”
– c.
Finally a post about NaNoWriMo I can embrace! Ppl are usually so extreme in their opinions about it: they either love it “and love it and love it” or hate it and “don’t even mention it to me”.
I’m using it as a tool to build up my discipline and my confidence but I’m not doing the “doesn’t matter what you write just increase your numbers” approach because I would like to use it as a first draft and not as a zero draft. I might not have the wordcount I need (although it does seem to be doable) but I’ll have something I can carefully edit later on.
I like your idea to use it as a story book if one goes after the actual challenge of 50k words and I hope that lot of writers will take your advice.
My NaNo profile says I’ve been a participant since 2002, though I couldn’t tell you what I was writing back then. I’ve never “won” it, and at my wordiest, I just squeaked past the halfway mark. That was back in 2004. Are those 26,000 words any good? Eh. My biggest problem with NaNo is the whole “just write it and don’t do any editing” thing. That’s not at all my style, and it just means that when December rolls around I’ll look at the whole mess, sigh, and want to shove it in a drawer.
The last few years, I’ve done a sort of modified NaNo: I don’t worry about word count. It’s more about the community and, like you said, the camaraderie. Several people I know are giving it a shot, so I’ll cheer them on and encourage them. Plus, I like knowing other people are writing while I am. It’s a kind of inspiration, I guess.
I tend to use NaNo to play around with projects I’ve set aside. Last year I found a new way to tell an old story of mine. This year, I’m going back to some short story ideas I’ve had a-brewing and tinkering with them. Instead of a goal of 50,000 words, my aim is to have (very, very) rough drafts of at least a few of them by the end of the month.
I think NaNo-ers should be required print out your last point and tack it above their monitors. For similar reasons, I find the October releases of B&N’s PubIt! and Borders’ Get Published programs highly suspect. I have a ranty blog post in the works about it, but essentially it feels like they’re hoping to lure in NaNo writers with that timing — get ‘em while they’re still starry-eyed and breathing heavy from the I-finished-a-book euphoria and make a few bucks off of the friends and family who will buy it.
Ahem. I’ll just take my rant-hat off now…
Thank you for an excellent post!
[...] 1. NaNoWriMo do’s and don’t's [...]
Thanks for writing this post, Chuck. After much hemming and hawing, I decided to try out NaNoWriMo this year, and your words made me feel much, much better about the decision.
Writing’s my day-job as well as my hobby, and I know full well how hard it can be to wring 1700ish words of publishable quality out every day; my normal working pace isn’t nearly so robust. But that’s the kicker, isn’t it? None of this needs to be “publishable”. It just needs to be *done*. NaNoWriMo’s an exercise in discipline, not great literature.
Thanks for reminding me that I can, in fact, treat this as my “zero draft”, and I don’t have to agonize over whether any of it makes sense in the moment, as long as I take the appropriate steps afterward to really make it shine. Just what I needed to hear.
This post is hilarious. You analogies are wonderful. I am doing NaNo to help give me discipline. I have none and writing to me is like meth to an addict. I can’t write enough to sate the need to write more. I have a muse who is a multitasking bitch and just won’t leave me alone with one project long enough to polish it.
My NaNo project will not be complete at 50K as it is adult fantasy (very adult= fallen angels and human degradation by the buckets), and I will not abandon it on Nov. 30th. Nor will I query.
Thanks for the post on this Nov. 1 aka the beginning of Nano. I needed a laugh.
J
This is the absolute best thing I’ve read about the NaNoWriMo experience…a great combination of reality check and encouragement.
And, yes, beneath my mild-mannered exterior, I AM an ass-kicking, neck-throttling word jockey!
I am a participant of Nanowrimo and I do enjoy it but I agree almost 100% with this post. I don’t go into Nanowrimo thinking I am going to write a novel. I am going to write 50,000 words of an idea of a novel. This idea will then need all kinds of work and polishing. The point for me is to sit down and write and get it out because otherwise it becomes a ‘one day I’d like to…’ and not something I ever do. I love the concept of zero draft because it’s so true.
I do already write everyday so it’s not such a drastic change for me but it’s nice to see that I can actually produce that many words (even if it is crap that will later be deleted).
But amazing post and incredibly helpful for Nanowrimos everywhere.
This is great stuff! I totally agree with them.
I’m doing NaNoWriMo now after doing it three times and succeeding only once (I’m a big procrastinator). NaNo got me to at least finish something, that’s probably the biggest plus for me. The biggest minus has to be that I just made a huge shit and I didn’t want to polish it. Thus it sat there for ages with half-hearted attempts at rewriting.
The core of the story is good I believe, and the sequel, which I’m writing now is even better thanks to the first. I learned a lot, especially the time after as I studied to make it better (which I wouldn’t if I didn’t have a novel), so I still think it was still worth it. But I think you can only truly benefit from it if you’re in it for the long haul. It taught me I could actually write every day at a specific time for a month. Now if I can just do it every day for a year…
Thanks for the advice!
This is EXACTLY what I needed to read.
Kudos, Chuck, for making me realize that I needn’t take this “contest” (or myself, for that matter) so fucking seriously!
Now I can drift off into writing oblivion in peace.
I’m doing NaNoWriMo because someday I’d like to try my hand at writing and this seems like a good place to start; I need goals because I have ADD. From the end of NaNo on, I’ll just go for 1k words or so a day until the writing reaches a logical conclusion.
But on to the article: you read my mind with the “draft zero” thing…though I never thought that people would actually send off their unfinished NaNoWriMo creations to publishers.
Great article and I have to say it is spot on. Nano is not a bad place to start if you are looking to start a writing habit, but it truly is like giving birth. Messy. Plus you end up with a premature baby that needs weeks in the NICU.
That said, I’m off to get in my daily word count. on a new zero draft. Book one needs a baby brother.
Like your style:)
So much so, that I will be picking up, beaming down or checking out audible for your novels.
I think you either already do or would make a great script writer, especially for some BBC television programs.
Just the right blend of gritty, dark, sarcastic wit.
Oh, and your advice is pure sage:)
“You don’t need luck. You just need to finish it.”
Word.
[...] fact, lets all just take a minute and head over to Chuck Wendig’s Blog and see what he has to say about the subject. Chuck is a fantastic writer, and I mean a really [...]
thank you… I am doing the Nano this year and this is indeed good advice
[...] last year, starting here — also available as a free e-book — or Chuck Wendig’s “Dos and Don’ts”), and so I’m not about to [...]
Yup. You nailed it, I think. I did the ‘zero draft’ over the past two months, plotted, charactered, outlined and rarin’ to go. NaNo is more of a discipline re-boot than anything else. The first draft, all 100k words of it, will be finished mid December, I think. The best part of NaNo IS the community.
Now. How do I change my avatar on this site from the skull-tribble mutation?
re:avatar. I assumed, making an ass of u and med.
Av okay.
Awesome! Thanks. I’ve got 1,600 words today on my “outline for an even awesomer and ass-kickier novel.” Waaaahoooo!
Nice perspective on the whole NanoScene.
I am participating in NaNoWriMo this year, this is my first year, and I found this to be helpful. I had the prologue/first chapter of a novel finished for a while, but I have yet to do anything with. It’s been sitting on computer memories and jump drives since I wrote it about a year ago. It’s been tweaked a little and poked at but I was procrastinating so much, nothing else useable got written. NaNo was a way to actually do something because I realized I don’t work well without a deadline. Now that I have a deadline, a goal, and a challenge I find writing much easier. I am not expecting this to be perfect, or complete, but it will be a start, a really really good start, and I will continue tweaking, editing, and completing the novel-baby-chair until it’s clean and shiney.
Very excited that people are finding this article somehow enlightening.
As I said on Twitter, you never know when a blog post will resonate, or when it will thud against the linoleum like a dried-out pudding.
Good luck, Wrimo-heads and Nano-bots.
– c.
Whether 50,000 words is enough for a novel depends on the language. I always write in Finnish where 50,000 words equals up to 75-80k of English.
My last year’s NaNo novel turned out to be about 45,000 words after I had finished editing it and it will be published next year. My publisher estimated it’s going to be some 250 pages in print, though my own estimate is a bit less than that.
I don’t want to say too much or be too critical if your opinion, but NO ONE said that 50,000 words was a complete novel. No one attempted to claim it, and no one told you that your story will magically wrap itself up in the last 5,000 words and be done in the exact 50,000 mark. The 50,000 words in a month is just a test of discipline for fun. It might be your job, sure. But some people paint for a living, or draw cartoons, or whatever. Does that mean that by doodling you’re devaluing their professions or negatively affecting it? No, it doesn’t.
Something that some people do for a living can be done as a game by other people, granted the quality won’t be as great but there is NO REASON it should. We are talking about people who haven’t done much writing in their entire life, that just want to write a novel for the hell of it.
I want to write 50,000 words for fun and for the challenge of it, I am not trying to be published and I don’t intend to be a writer, and I don’t think my story will be over in 50,000 words and I definitely intend to continue it further if necessary. In other words, I feel sort of offended by what you said.
Great advice. I’ll pass it along. I would participate in this event if it were held almost any other time of year, but think adding this challenge to the already exhausting holiday season would send me over the edge. Still, most of the advice would be useful for roughing out a novel any time of year, so I plan to review it again in January. Thanks & good luck everyone who is participating!
I’ve done (and won) NaNo by the rules five years running, but this year I’ve been struggling with how to approach the month. I wasn’t keen on starting a new first draft when I’m sitting on several partially edited or unedited novels from previous years. In any case, the new stories I’d been outlining weren’t ready to be written yet. And I wasn’t sure whether my work in progress would benefit from a mad dash to the finish — it’s finally going well after several false starts and I don’t want to screw it up again.
Your thoughts let me give myself permission to adapt NaNo to my own needs. Thank you!
(Now to find out if my plan of attack will work in practice…)
I’m writing in NaNo. I thank you for this post so much. I’ve been having difficultly writing my story in that I love it so much and I feel like I’m performing a cruel experiment on my child by putting this story through NaNoWriMo. If I do think about is as just and outline, or even a massive brainstorming process that get ideas, then I feel like I can do this.
Thank you.
I loved this post, really got me even more motivated to do Nano this month. I’m sort of staring at a blank page right now, but I rarely sleep as it is so I don’t suspect 50k being a problem. I only suspect that making those 50k turn into something that flows to be the problem.
I tend to start something way before finishing something else, rinse and repeat..
i’m doing the nanowrimo the first time, and your tips are most helpful! Is it normal to want to change the story a lot of times?
[...] Current wordcount:2263 I’ve been reading a lot of the articles and tweets connected to the #Nanowrimo hash since it started and there are some interesting ones. Particularly the do and don’t list. [...]
f’in brilliant. That’s all I got to say.
actually, I do have one more thing to say: thank you.
@Izzy:
I apologize if you were offended. Not my intent. My suspicion is that this post really isn’t for you — it’s for the people who want to be professional writers in some capacity.
If you want to write a novel for the hell of it, please do. I love photography, but I did not begin to do it with any intent toward a profession (though I’ve since been paid for some work).
But if you are just writing a novel for the shits and the giggles, I don’t think much of what I’m going to say will help. Or, more importantly, will matter.
– c.
@Kelley –
In my experience, all we writers want to do is keep changing the story and jumping from novel to novel. We are fickle assholes, we writer types.
The goal is to hunker down and nest on one idea and do not leave the nest until the eggs are hatched (meaning, project is complete).
– c.
Okay, well, my biggest issue is using….stimulating words. I lack a wide vocabulary. I use simple, mundane words. Even the ones in here, are just scraping the very bottom of my brain. And I move too fast. Before I know it, I’m only 20 pages deep, and a fight already happened, the main charecter went to a party, and met the boy in her dreams. Ah!!! One I wrote, 15 pages, and a supporting character dies. I try to rush to the end waaayyyy too fast.
I totally knew I spent the last two years knitting a sweater for a unicorn, and no one believed me.
Thanks for this post. Even though I’m not doing Nanowrimo, I still enjoyed it. In order to write my first novel I realized I had to give myself permission to write poorly. Sounds odd I suppose. Sometimes you’re in the zone and sure it’s all “bring in the harps and the dancing muses”, but other days you just have to say to yourself, “Today I suck at this and I’m going to keep going anyway.” At least that was my experience.
I completely have that jumping around from idea to idea disease, though. Just started a blog and in a way I fear it fosters that bad twitchy habit because you gotta keep coming up with posts, right? Difficult to transition out of that and back into working on the next novel, but I’m trying!
[...] Chuck Wendig wrote a piece on the Dos and Don’ts of NaNoWriMo, which is humorous and offers pertinent pieces of [...]
Right on Chuck! Awesome advice. I’m on year two of participating in the crazy awesomeness called NaNoWriMo. Thanks for the great words of wisdom.
I love you. This is an awesome blog. Write on!
[...] Nanowhonow? Nanowrimo “Dos” and “Don’ts” It’s that time of year again where thousands around the world challenge themselves to write a 50,000 word “novel” in 30 days. I’ve tried this a couple times, completed it once. Probably not going to be able to give it a go this year, but good luck to those that put forth the effort. [...]
You had me nodding until the part about new writers sending first drafts to agents being shitheads. Overzealous, and amateur? Yes. Shitheads? No. I’m sure there was a time when you, too, finished a novel or story or essay without editing it and had an insatiable urge to show it to everyone, with dreams of being published dancing in your head. New writers don’t know that they have to polish their work before submitting it — unless someone tells them. Making fun of them is not going to help them, or help writers who do polish, and polish some more, before submitting.
It’s mighty presumptuous and quite shitty of you, actually.
Reading your awesome tips helped me relax a bit, which is good because the pressure I put on myself is my biggest flesh-eating-cyborg-strength enemy. Many thanks!
Pretty sure THIS
“You are an ass-kicking, neck-throttling word jockey. You command the powers of the verbal elements. You make characters dance, fight, fuck, eat, love and kill. You can set the mood of the room the way most people set the temperature in their house. You are a god here.”
is my new mantra. Yeh I want to stick it above mycomputer if my stupid scary plot outline wasn’t already stuck up there ((by stupid scaryI mean totally brillaint. It’s just big))
YEH!
@Elizabeth Kaylene: Let me guess. You’re new here?
Re-reading this for the second time almost makes me feel bad for “cheating” by writing a dozen and a half short stories instead of an actual novel-length work. I just have to remind myself that I am working up to novel length (because I have the attention span of a crack-addled goldfish) and that my outlines have most of my stories pretty well connected to at least two (many of them three or four) other stories.
In any case, I’ll almost certainly be referring back to this in the future.
This is by far the best NaNo post I’ve read thus far (and I’ve seen a ton of NaNo posts this week).
“Your goal is not to “win” an Internet experiment-slash-experience.”
This line really hit me. I need to stop putting pressure on myself to WIN! because honestly, what am I winning?
Thanks for this great post!
@Rory: You guessed wrong. (:
I have a huge problem with someone posting a how-to article for NaNoWriMo — which is comprised mostly of first-time or amateur writers — using condescending language toward just those people, even if it’s meant to be funny. It’s not. It’s like laughing at your kid when he tells you he drew a person, even though it’s missing the eyes or a nose, or maybe a couple of limbs.
Love this! One of the best things about NaNoWriMo is the community feel of the thing. Posts like this pull the writing community together. Thank you!
Here’s a story.
I turned 17 two minutes ago. For as long as I can remember I’ve wanted to be a writer. I just finished writing 2,000 words on my first NaNo. I love to write but I’ve suffered from the typical writer syndrome of not being able to stick to a project, exacerbated by my teenage immaturity.
When i wrote those 2,000 words I got a glimpse of that little shimmer of pleasure that every writer, I think, is chasing. I cared for my characters like real people and when the words were flowing out of me it was sacred bliss, even though it was hard until I hit about 600 words.
NaNoWriMo is definitely a good thing.
So, I found your blog post in Twitterland and quite enjoyed it. I think in general you hit on some really good points. Personally, I’ve been writing my entire life (or at least since I could pick up a pencil and form words out of letters) and NaNo is just another excuse to do what I do the rest of the year anyways, except with a deadline (which I often find incredibly motivating).
I attended an author talk/signing with Scott Westerfeld in November 2009 and he said something about it that stuck with me: writers have to write about a million words before they get something decent, and NaNoWriMo is perfect for getting rid of your first million.
Your last point was particularly interesting. I didn’t realize how many people think that just because they wrote 50k words they’re worthy of being published. As a freelance writer/editor/proofreader I guess I’m just used to people knowing how important editing is because those are the people I work with on a daily basis. I think we need to emphasize the importance of editing and I liked your point that this is a “zero draft.” NaNo conditions are not ideal for a first draft, anyways. Not to mention, I find 50,000 words is pretty short to complete a novel. I generally pass 75k before I feel a novel is complete. I can hash out at least 4-5k a day, and that’s after writing another 4k for work and editing about 30k words for work. Which goes to show, everyone works at a drastically different pace. In the end, it’s quality not so much the quantity/pacing that matters. But I’m preaching to the choir, so I’ll stop.
My point is, in general, I find NaNo is a good idea. Mainly because it provides motivation to get some of those “million words” out, and it provides a deadline which is also motivating when you need to practice writing. But I agree that it has some drawbacks, and thus should be taken “seriously but not too seriously.”
I definitely agree with what you are saying. Although I’ve been NaNo-ing since 2004, the whole, “Vomit up a random selection of 50,000 words and call it a novel” thing never appealed to me. That’s why I only completed the challenge once, and that one time the novel kind of sucked and now it sits waiting for me to have time to make it whole. November is when I get the most writing done, though, because I spend the whole year knowing that I will be gunning for 50k words that month, which is difficult when I am a full time student with a full time job. But it gives me a chance to get past that “New idea” phase, where I think up a new thing, get bored, and move on to the next new thing. I know that I’ll at least get a sizable amount of a work done. The 500 words I wrote today were the most I have written since my failed attempt at a writing blog in June. It’s nice to be in the saddle again.
I keep telling myself that once I graduate college I’ll have time to write the hundreds of stories I’ve started. If I can manage that… Maybe I’ll have a chance at this whole writer thing after all.
The only point here that raised an eyebrow for me is the issue of length. It seems “The Great Gatsby” has been the novel most often cited as being around the NaNoWriMo word length, and I know there are other short novels that are not only good, but have been influential to society. Aldous Huxley’s “Brave New World” comes to mind.
I’m not saying I think every NaNoWriMo participant who hits that 50k word mark is going to be turning out a work like those. Even the ones who do take the time to edit, revise, re-write, rinse, repeat most likely will not be writing the next “Gatsby”. My point is that a good book shouldn’t run the risk of being ruined by a new author with a lot of potential and little experience because they said all they need to for it to be perfect in 50k or 60k words, but then remembered an author on the internet said that’s not long enough to be a “proper novel”. I love losing myself in a long novel, or even a long series of long novels. However, I’d rather read 50-60k excellent words than 50-60k excellent words, 20k passably good words, and another 10k words that probably shouldn’t have been written.
Agents are tools, they deserve the hassle.
I love NaNoWriMo. After I graduated grad school (funny?) I vowed that I would commit to the word count. And I have the certificate to prove I did it. Lemme tell you, that “I did it” feeling is awesome. Write-ins are awesome. Do ‘em. The bond between Wrimos is awesome. Use it.
Writing is awesome. Do it. And I can’t slight a single one of these Do’s and Don’ts. The thing that I find most important about this post, and NaNoWriMo, is that the product itself is not as important as the process. As hitting your numbers, of watching your word count bar fill up. As writing your draft.
I did all that, and I loved it. It’s a few years since and I’m still editing and beefing up my draft. I’ve moved on to other, more immediately profitable or intellectually stimulating projects. NaNoWrimo helped me see that I could do this writer thing. But sending my draft to publishers? (And that year all the winners got a free chance to online publish) That would have been a sh*thead move. Why? Because it’s all about the process, and we don’t publish the process. But we should love it. It’s awesome.
Like that certificate on my fridge.
[Pollyanna Soapbox Mode De-activated]
K
Super inspirational! Brilliant tips…
Mad grateful…
@Elizabeth:
My intent isn’t to call people names, and I’m sorry to have caused offense.
That said, I’m not comfortable equating handing your parents a crayon drawing with chucking your unfinished and unrefined manuscript into the world for agents and editors to see.
I was first published when I was 18 years old. I had a short story published. Even then, at that age, I knew that you don’t submit a clumsy first draft — all you’re doing in that case is being a selfish human being with no thought toward the editor whose inbox you’re gumming up or toward those other writers who now must get through your own personal Garbage Blockade (as if getting published isn’t hard enough).
“Amateur” does not need to equate to “selfish/ignorant human being.” I was a first-time author, too, but I did my research. If someone wants to submit work, they need to do a little due diligence. Failure to do so is, frankly, kind of shitheaded — it’s myopic, it’s solipsistic, and it’s selfish.
– c.
Well, I think you’re all shitheads. Especially me. So there.
That being said, I loved this article – like I did around last time you wrote about NaNoInnaGaddaDavida and I should have commented yesterday but, well, we got busy on Twitter (You sexy thing) and I got distracted. I stand by that I won’t partake in NaNo but I think it’s a cool idea, just not for me. More power to anyone trying it.
And my thoughts on the entire submitting before it’s ready thing: that should be a no-brainer, and yeah, their shitheads if they try it. I was a shithead when I tried forever ago, and only now am I growing out of my shithead ways. Is it harsh? Yes. But so is life, especially if you want to support your life through excreting words. NaNoWriBff4ever is hard. It’s brutal. Why should advice about trying to sell be any different?
Excellent. Informative and entertaining, thanks for the post. I’m doing NaNo this year and I’m super excited. I can’t help, but be a little bright eyed and bushy tailed about it. It is, for me, an exercise in discipline. If I can get myself into the habit of sitting down and writing everyday no matter what’s going on, I feel like skill will come in time.
I’m not delusional though. I won’t call myself a novelist at the end of the month. Just because I can do a couple of card tricks doesn’t mean I’m a magician.
In the end, I don’t think people should get so hot collared over NaNo. We don’t go around yelling at all the little kids in Pee wee football that they’re never going to make it to the NFL. Most will keep at it while its fun. Most will quit after finding out how much work it truly is.
And a lot of people going into it this year are just praying they can poop out something better than Twilight.
[...] the other postdocs out there, are you participating in NaNoWriMo? Be sure to check out the dos and don’ts at terribleminds for some good advice. What are your writing assignments for [...]
I’m not delusional though. I won’t call myself a novelist at the end of the month. Just because I can do a couple of card tricks doesn’t mean I’m a magician.
Very well said.
And thanks!
– c.
I never said that it was okay to submit something unedited. I’m saying that many people don’t even know they have to edit. You all may think it’s a no-brainer, but you’d be shocked at how many people really, truly just don’t know. Chuck, you should be a little more careful about your wording, considering you’re writing an article for first-timers. That being said, by all means — tell them to edit, edit, edit. They need to know!
Someone above said that agents and publishers were harsh, and yes, that’s true, but I doubt any professional would call submitting authors names. I get that this was all in fun and, like I said in my first comment, I enjoyed 99% of the article. I’m just trying to say that instead of laughing at newbies, we should be helping them. After all, if no one had taken me under their wing, I’d still be writing stories and novels and being satisfied with them as soon as I finished the last sentence.
Now, if you continue to submit stuff without editing, even though you have been told time and time again? Then yeah, you’re a shithead. :B
@Elizabeth:
My point is, being a “new writer” does not absolve you from “trying to have a clue.” Being new at anything still requires some measure of responsibility — I wouldn’t paint a picture and then try to jam it up the ass of the security guard at the Louvre — “Here! It’s my first artwork! I’m new! I don’t know any better! Hang it up!” People will look at that guy and say, “Hey, look, honey. A shithead.”
As I said, I was a new writer, but I knew enough not to smear my sticky jam-hands on the wall and call it a novel, and then peel off that jelly-stuck wallpaper and send it to agents and editors.
Writers who want to be writers learn pretty early on that you need to edit. Even in high school you sometimes do a rough draft of papers and stories — so, if you’re a 20- or 30-something human being and you don’t edit and you just wantonly send out your NaNoWriMo novel for publication, I’m sorry, I think that earns you a Mr. Yuck sticker smack dab in the middle of your forehead so that all can see.
I am not, at all, in any way, insulting new writers or amateurs. (Or, at least, that is not my intent.) All writers were new at one point. All writers had to start out as amateurs.
But that doesn’t excuse them from, when trying to move into a professional realm (which is what you do when you submit to an agent or an editor), doing the right thing and taking responsibility for the draft.
The joy of this blog is, I’m not an agent, I’m not an editor. I can be harsh (reflecting the actually harsh conditions out there) and even still, nobody has to listen. They are free to ignore my mumbling waffle as they see fit.
Even still, shitheads are shitheads. They don’t get the excuse of “But I didn’t know any better,” because even the most basic and essential of information will tell you to do differently.
– c.
This is my third year doing NaNoWriMo. I won it the first two years and I editied my first book “almost” to the point of submission readiness. I even have someone to submit it to. I loved what you had to say. Honestly, I haven’t read it all -yet- I’m in a hurry to go deal with life. Then it’s back to NaNo. I definitely hope to build some great relationships during this process. I agree, there are so many of us, and so much potential. I’ll be back. Thanks.
This is the second year I’ve done NaNoWriMo. For me, what I’ve found is that the blessing of the artificial super-fast deadline is that it FINALLY makes my inner censor shut up. When there is no pressure, I have plenty of time to dither and second-guess my ideas — but when I have a one-month deadline looming, the rest of my brain goes into Deadline Panic Mode and flails about because OH NO WE HAVE TO WRITE A WHOLE BOOK AND WE NEED AN IDEA AND WE HAVE NONE OH CRAP WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO WAIT THERE’S AN IDEA LET’S JUST GO WITH THIS GO GO MOVE MOVE MOVE. And I pounce on the first idea that comes into my head — an idea which, in truth, was lurking there all along, patiently waiting for my inner censor to shut up so it could come forward — and finally do something with it. For me, that’s been INVALUABLE.
I know that what I did last year is not ready for public consumption, but…I also know that it’s a damn good start, one that’s good enough for me to think “could I…do something with this, maybe?” I know the same will be true of this years’ outing, and I already like it better than last time’s.
finally: the phrase “That Makes Word Jesus Turn Evil And Doom The World” has been making me laugh and laugh.
[...] jeder kann, ist für einige der NaNoWriMo so wichtig, und das weiß Chuck Wendig auch. Darum hat er hier ein paar Tips für diejenigen parat, die nicht Chuck Wendig [...]
Awesome & inspiring article, thanks
And for the record, I’m enjoying my Zero-Draft – although I prefer calling it my Beta-Draft
A zero draft. I’ve never thought of that. It’s perfect for nano, which I am doing. So far I’ve managed to get up at 4 a.m. two mornings in a row to work on the novel BEFORE getting sidetracked with life stuff.
BTW, this is a great post. I equate sending out a first draft with leaving the house with your fly unzipped.
[...] Nathan Bransford takes the cake with his pre-Nano boot camp posts. However, the best piece of advice came from Chuck Wendig via Janet Reid. Write this draft like it’s a very deep, intensive outline, [...]
[...] Chuck Wendig, of TerribleMinds wrote an article called Nanowhonow? A Big Fast Squirming List of Nanowrimo ‘Dos’ and ‘Don’ts’. [...]
[...] Because it’s National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo. Some of you may be like “NaNoWhoNow?”(1) [...]
[...] More HERE =>http://terribleminds.com/ramble/2010/11/01/nanowhonow-nanowrimo-dos-and-donts/ [...]
Good post.
This is my fourth NaNoWriMo and I’ve never won it. I don’t remember why I even signed up for it the first time. I think that a friend told me about it and I thought it was funny. Don’t look at me like that, I was young and stupid. Damn, I’m still young and stupid but, by now, I’ve learned what NaNo is for me and how it can help me.
Never, ever, I’ve been able to finish anything I’ve tried to write. I’m not constant. I’m always writing (I don’t know how not to write everyday, actually), but it’s never the same story. I have like a thousand different stories, all of them started, none of them finished. Most of them are kinda shitty, and it all sucks quite a lot. So this year, my goal is to finish a first draft of one of the few really good ideas I think I’ve actually had. A zero draft, as you said. Then, it’ll take a lot of time of rewriting and rewriting and rewriting and maybe rewriting some more. If I have a zero draft by November 30th, I’ll be quite happy. Gosh, I’ll be extremely happy and willing to try with something bigger (fixing up the mess and transform the draft in something that can actually be called a novel).
I don’t know. I think I told you all that because I really agree what most of the things you wrote here. I think this is a pretty accurate description of my vision of this whole NaNoWriMo thing: a experience I’ll enjoy and that, hopefully, will help the writer in me to grow up. Not some magical formula to write the perfect novel and sell it right after the month finishes. Not at all.
As I said, a really good post I’ll recomend to some newbies I’ve recruited this year
Ok, sorry about the mistakes I made. It’s late and I wrote it pretty quickly :S
Loved your blog post. Thanks for the great tips! I’ve been writing for magazines for nearly twenty years, and am finding this to be a fun exercise in taking on a different kind of writing. Fiction has just never been my thing. I think this will be good practice for birthing the non-fiction baby I really want to bring into the world before long. I’ll use NaNo to get the discipline part down first and enjoy the ride. So far, I can’t believe how in 4,000 little words there’s so much to keep track of. Wait, was she the middle sibling? Wasn’t he a shitty student? Why was she such a bitch before if she’s being sweet as a kitten now? Am I rewriting The Three Faces of Eve here? Is it okay to drop lines in from the PBS show on Native American Films as I round the bend toward my word count for the day? So much fun, though.
Thanks for that awesome post. The fickleness of the writing mind is truly a terror to behold. Worse from the inside ( and though I mostly write music, it’s just as frustrating to try to stay on focus and ignore the floating shiny objects. Look! There’s one now!)
I’ll read this post often and then try to get back to work. Many thanks.
Thank you for this post. I’m doing Nano this year because I’ve got an idea for a sequel to the novel that is coming out this month and I figured this was a good way to jump-start it. I don’t intend to finish the whole thing in one month and their “write without editing” style is definitely not for me. I’m more of an edit-as-you-go kind of person. Anyway, free writing is a great way to get something STARTED, but I certainly have no interest in finishing the whole thing in a month… the last one took me two years with editing to write about 110,000 words and I enjoyed the process, so why should I rush through it this time?
It’s always that kind of encouraging texts like yours that I need to go on writing. If I don’t get my monthly encouragement I lose all confidence because I think I’m the only writer in the world with my kind of problems. Though I perfectly know I’m not… It’s a vicious circle!
Thanks a lot from Berlin!
@Elizabeth: I completely disagree with you. If you are serious about your writing (even if you’re new) then you SHOULD know that you have to edit your work. I think a serious writer SHOULD have insecurities about the quality of their work, enough to want to go through it to make sure that it is okay before letting anyone else see it. It was published for the first time at 23 and it the first thing I ever wrote. As I was e-mailing it off to an editor, I was so nervous about what he would think, I nearly wet my pants the minute I clicked the send-button. If I ever finished something with the feeling that this is wonderful and I had to show it to everyone right away, I would immediately think that there had to be something terribly wrong with it. I find that if the writing comes to easy and if I don’t question what I’m doing, then it’s usually a piece of crap not fit for anyone to read. That’s my experience, anyway.
oh, and I blame the spelling mistakes in my last comment on the fact that english is my second language
Last year I wrote during NaNoWriMo to complete a novel’s first draft and I did. By November 22nd I had 67K and a complete story. However, I’d spent most of October preparing to write that first draft so I think it was a first draft in every sense of the phrase.
This year I didn’t prepare in any way except “Oh yeah, I’d better decide what I’m going to do.” I didn’t even start writing until November 2nd, and frankly I felt really guilty and down on myself about that.
Thanks to the blog, my head is a little higher because, dammit, I’m writing a zero draft and that’s just fine!
Thanks, Chuck. Nice article.
Basically one of the best NaNo-related posts I’ve seen by far. I’ve been pretty keen on writing a novel, but I never quite found that drive until NaNoWriMo came along. Now I’m not quite sure if this post was meant to be like this but it’s like getting a very straightforward pep-talk from a friend. Although the whole process of actually writing a novel is gruelling, I like to think it’ll be worth it in the end. Anyway, any more wisdom for an aspiring writer who just wants to see her name in print because it’s brag-able (hehehe)?
Love your view and tips!
This is my first NaNo attempt. I am having a blast and it has really shown me how much time I usually waste away when I should be writing. My word count each day has been nearly 3,000 and I am getting through the housework. I have learned discipline…yeah!
I have now given myself and extra challenge to target 80,000. However, I have a game plan if the time runs out and I need to add an ending fast. ;0
Happy Scribbling and good luck to all NaNo participants. Heck, good luck to all writers around the word!
Ah, typo’s just love ‘em…
Happy Scribbling and good luck to all NaNo participants. Heck, good luck to all writers around the worLd!
I’m one of those people who have always wanted to write a novel, but never really thought they could. That’s what nano is changing for me. Now that I’ve entered nano, I’m not -just- writing for myself anymore. I’ve taken on an obligation (even though I really haven’t) and now I’m actually doing what I never believed that I could. Writing is difficult, sometimes about as much fun as pulling teeth, but at least now I’m pushing through those rough parts rather than thinking “I can’t do this” and throwing in the towel. Although I agree that 50000 words is too short for a novel and that writing a novel takes a lot more than a month, this experience is making a big difference in me.
One thing about the article had me puzzled, though. You said that you didn’t ever “win” nanowrimo because you hit 50000 words without finishing your story? But when I read the guidelines they said that the 50000 words were a threshold, not a stopping place, and therefore it didn’t matter if you were only halfway through?
[...] NaNoWriMo? Gosh, if only someone would write an article of writing advice for you! And if only someone else say, Laura Miller at Salon, would express some kind of disapproval of the [...]
Thanks. Zero draft. Brilliant.
Make a mess, then clean it up.
Off to shit on the floor.
Thanks. Needed that again.
“drink until she’s pretty”–that’s the best metaphor for polishing a novel EVER! Great post!
Very interesting stuff!
I started in July 09, finished with 53k words and in Feb 2010 thought I had a novel. Sent 10 queries and heard nothing. Figured out that 53k isn’t a novel. Started fleshing out characters, added, tuned, fine tuned, read Donald Maass’ excellent book on writing the breakout novel. Re-read the book, re-wrote a few parts, looked for useless adverbs and action killers like was and had. In July I had 74k words, and a better story. I still haven’t queried it as I want to let it sit, sites like this make me want to tune it one more time, then tune it again and start the query process.
Chuck, all the agents at Maass seem great…I might send to the general inbox and hope someone likes it! Do you think that’s a good plan?
@Elizabeth
I did not know, yet I am very grateful for the advice. I’m such a n00b at writing, you have no idea X3 this actually helped take off some of the pressure, and I really don’t mind being called a shithead and laughing at me if it tells me something. Granted, some people are more sensitive, but that’s just my case.
[...] feedback, Nanowrimo is maybe a good introduction to a Writer’s Life; as Chuck Wendig notes at Terrible Minds, 1,667 words a day is not All That Much. When I still wrote seriously I wrote a couple thousand [...]
I’m a die-hard nanner myself. I really don’t think I’d ever have completed a novel if it weren’t for nano. I’ve seen all sorts of posts all over the net about nano, and let me say,
THIS IS BRILLIANT!!!
Every other one I’ve seen presents one side, without acknowledging the possibility that the other side exists. Some people nano. Some don’t.
I found after my first nano, that my draft was actually a workable outline, even though I don’t seem to be able to write actual outlines.
Also, as a nanner, I’m never ever going to submit a novel to agents in December, even if I’ve been editign it for 2 years. December’s for the crazies. My submission year runs from February to November 1, with a little break for summer. lol.
This is my fourth Nanowrimo and my first Nano novel that I might like. I love doing Nano because it does force me to focus on one thing and getting my “zero draft” down. It also gives me an excuse to write a lot, every day, and get up early to do so (yeah, I’m only 17 so my mom still calls the shots).
Do you have a blog post on picking which quarter-finished story to work on?
I know this may sound inane, but I’m doing NaNoWriMo for the first time and all I want to get out of me is a story about my childhood. I have to get it out before I do anything else. It’s good – and I’m writing the shit out of it.
Please tell me the writing gods still love me?
Ha-ha I’m a Nano newbie this year. I couldn’t care less if I get published.
It’s the story that counts. Writing is addicting.
This is my fifth year doing NaNo, and I’m afraid I wont finish it this year because I’ve just had my first baby. However I’m plugging away with elation as well as trepidation.
This is a great post, and I really enjoyed reading it. I’ll peek at it now and then throughout the month for inspiration on my latest work.
Thank you for putting the Nano novel into the proper perspective. I’ve written one published novel, which took me five and one-half years to polish and complete. I’ve written the first draft of my second novel. It’s taken two years. Now, I’m trying for a 30 day novella. In-between, I work on short stories, articles, and essays for anthologies or literary magazine. I’m also promoting my first book, In and Out of Madness on Amazon. I appreciate your very good advice. Seeing this as a zero draft does take the pressure off and leaves the mind free to plug in to my subconscious mind where my muse resides.
Great post! The way I’ve approached NaNo is for it to give me enough material to work with. If I even get out half on the word count then at least I have something to play around with. I’ve been giving a free pass for it to be a piece of shit, because I agree with you that there’s no way it can be good in 30 days. I find that freeing. I’m the type of write that keeps re-working the same stuff over and over so I never get anywhere. I can let all of that go and just keep going.
I like a person who can effectively use the word “Fuck” in a multitude of ways. FYI: The 4 letter “f” word of a sterotyped, obscene nature is my favorite word, used at least 20 times a day.
I think this post is great, inspiring, and a good description of the crazy nature of the writer pysche.
My noodle is currently sloshing around 2 additional stories… and I am still editing 1 novel, and working another.
*Dumb question moment*
Would editing a novel already completed count towards Nanowrimo worthiness?
I will answer my own question and say “No!” So this writer will continue plugging away at one new idea for the month of November.
Thanks again Chuck for the encouraging words provided.
[...] blogging, but actual writing. NaNoWriMo even states that its about quantity over quality. I read thisexcellent post by Chuck Wendig. I think it hits the nail on the head about the whole point of [...]
Sweet article.
I’m doing the young writer NaNoWriMo (Im 13) and I’m really enjoying it so far. Most of my friends in school HAVE to do NaNoWriMo in school as a project…my friend told me about the site and I had to join. But the teacher told them to write a wimpy 8,000 words this month. I think that’s kind of pathetic if you ask me.
And my online friends on deviantart.com all say “quantity over quality when it comes to NaNoWriMo”. Bullcrap.
This article helped me realize I’m not the only actually taking this seriously for the quality over quantity.
I am a beginner writer though…so I think I’ll work on this novel for over a year, and than hopefully publish it :]
I’m sending all the members of my region your way. They all need to read this, not only to bring a smile to their faces for the way you put some things, but to make them really think as well (the ones who are serious “I want to be a writer” writers anyway, not the “this’ll be a fun activity for the month!” jackasses.)
[...] I was struggling, and I went to her blog, and read this…. Great article on writing. I suppose it was meant for NaNoWriMo, but its suggestions for how to tackle your book, first [...]
This is possibly the best article on writing…ever. Wow *stands shaking head in dumbstruck awe.*
Thank you for shouting the truth with style. I am now a fan and looking forward to more.
Kristen
Love, love, loved this! You really get it, and I’m glad you’ve laid it all all there for the people who don’t.
Excellent. Exactly the kick in the pants (and good laugh) that I needed – even if it’s going to be applied to a comic rather than a book.
Thanks a bunch!
(Found this article through Kristen Lamb, just for the records.)
[...] Author Chuck Wendig and the Dos and Don’ts of NaNoWriMo [...]
[...] about NaNoWriMo that I wanted to share! It’s from Chuck Wendig and it’s all about the dos and don’ts of NaNoWriMo. It’s a wonderful thing to participate in, but there are some things to realize. You are not [...]
[...] as I’m about to explain, it will distract me from writing. A few days into NaNoWriMo I read this blog post by a writer, Chuck Wendig, who has a love/hate relationship with NaNoWriMo, but also excellent [...]
[...] on Terribleminds, a large post on do’s and don’ts for NaNo writers, or any writers starting [...]
[...] Here are some NaNo DOs and DON’Ts, courtesy of TerribleMinds. [...]
[...] And finally, for anyone taking part in NaNoWriMo (like our very own Miss Phoenix), here are some tips on How to Make Your Month Not Suck. [...]
[...] over at Terrible Minds, an awesome post on the Dos and Don’ts of NaNoWriMo. I especially like “Consider this a Zero Draft” and “Think of this as a very [...]
[...] ✍ Writing advice on Terribleminds [...]
[...] NaNoWhoNow? NaNoWriMo Dos And Don’ts [...]
Wow! Well written. I’m sharing this to some of my friends who are really serious about writing. Maybe it will help them in some way.
I’ll stumble this.
Read something similar here.
http://www.43folders.com/2006/04/10/lamott-birthday
From author Anne Lamott;
“For me and most of the other writers I know, writing is not rapturous. In fact, the only way I can get anything written at all is to write really, really shitty first drafts.”
You need to get past the the mental block of being able to write a bestseller at the first attempt, that in order to be good at something, you are going to suck at it, for a while. The only way to get better, is to do it again, and again, and again. Over and over, honing your craft.
But this is true of everything we do, right?
BTW, to build any type of new habit, takes at least two years of doing it on a daily basis. At least. Or so I am led to believe.
Anyway, great post, thank you.
Thanks for the tips, but I think that my ADD medicine is the best solution for writers block haha.
[...] And finally, for anyone taking part in NaNoWriMo (like our very own Miss Phoenix), here are some tips on How to Make Your Month Not Suck. [...]
[...] NaNoWhoNow? A Big Fat Squirming List of NaNoWriMo ‘Dos’ and Don’ts‘ by Chuck [...]
[...] 2009], starting here — also available as a free e-book — or Chuck Wendig’s “Dos and Don’ts”), and so I’m not about to [...]
[...] NaNoWhoNow? A Big Fat Squirming List of NaNoWriMo Do’s and Don’ts’ http://terribleminds.com [...]
[...] a guide why it’s a good idea to do the NaNoWriMo and tips on participating on [...]
Great thoughts and comments that will be helpful to many as they go through this process. I too believe in passing forward to others who are learning our craft. In fact, each day of NaNoWriMo, I’m posting a tip.
You can read them at http://www.authorprovocateur.com/2011/11/nanowrimo-tips-all.html
-Josie Brown, author, Secret Lives of Husbands and Wives
[...] Here‘s an article by the M-rated Chuck Wendig (who has a wicked way with words). And here’s the bit that I think is the most important: [...]
Im throwing my vote behind a Kirk Hammett version.