Why NNWM: Proof positive

Part of the why NaNoWriMo is good for writers series.

NaNoWriMo is an annual challenge that is run on an honour system. That means that it isn’t policed, and sure, there are a huge amount of ways to cheat if that’s what you want to do.

Ultimately, I don’t think that NaNoWriMo is about proving anything to anyone but yourself. That’s why its honour system works, and why that honour system is enough to make NaNo meaningful: at the end of the day, if you cheat, you’re only cheating yourself. Anyone can mock up a winner’s certificate easily enough; it only means something if you’ve actually earned it. And if you have? Great job!

A lot of people say that they want to write a novel one day. NaNo is the chance to make ‘one day’ be today, and it’s a chance to realise that yes, you can actually do it.

When you get to the end of the month, if you’ve hit the target and completed the challenge, you’ve written a novel. Sure, it’s the first draft of a novel and needs work, but you’ve done it. Even if you haven’t reached the end of the story, that’s okay, because you’ve just proven that you’re capable of writing 50,000 words in only a month. If you can do that, you can get to the end of the story, however many more words that means. Then you’ve got the first draft of a whole novel, and that’s pretty damned awesome.

You’ve proven to yourself that this writing thing isn’t so far out of reach. It isn’t some unicorn you say you want to tame like it’s a fantastical dream that lives on the other side of the rainbow. No, you’re Dorothy fucking Gale, riding the whirlwind over the rainbow, and you’re squashing that unicorn like its a stripey-stockinged witch. You went forth and made your way through every twist and turn of your own personal yellow brick road. You collected characters along the way and saw them changed by the end. You looked behind the curtain. And you came home in one piece, but different. Broader, more accomplished, like you just saved a whole multi-coloured world.

You know now that you can do something amazing. You managed to put your self-doubt aside, sat on your inner editor and all those other voices that tell you you can’t do it, and proved them wrong. You are capable of doing more than you thought you could.

And if you didn’t reach the 50,000 words? Either way, you’ve learned something. Maybe it’s how to fit writing into your life, or the best way to plan a novel. Maybe it’s the opposite: you’ve learned what doesn’t work for you. That’s all good: it’s all a step forward. And, chances are, you’ve now got 35,000 or 20,000 words of a novel under your belt.

Let me tell you: that’s still damn amazing. It’s still something. That’s still 35,000 or 20,000 more words than you had at the beginning of November. It’s still an adventure and an experience.

For many writers, NaNoWriMo is a way to realise that writing a novel is possible, and plausible, and achievable. Particularly for those who don’t have their own personal cheering squad, or whose self confidence can be unkind and unhelpful, this can be the kind of lift that they need. It can give them the impetus and confidence to continue forward, to keep writing and maybe finish that novel. Or maybe just that warm, fuzzy feeling of a goal achieved, a win they can call their own.

We all need that bit of validation every now and then. Some, more than others. Never underestimate the value of a sticker, or a cheer, or a PDF certificate to say hey, you did this awesome thing, you wonderful writer you.

Good for you.

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Why NNWM: You’re not alone

Part of the why NaNoWriMo is good for writers series.

One of the best things about NaNoWriMo is the community.

Writing is so often seen as a solitary activity: writers tuck themselves away in garrets and corners and libraries, probably with headphones on, bent over their laptop or notebook or kitschy old typewriter. On their own. They spend their time happily toiling away on this thing they’re doing, without talking to anyone, without needing or wanting company.

Well, that’s bullshit. (I’ve written about this before.) The thing about writers is that it’s hard to shut them up once they start talking, because they want to talk. We want to share: that’s why we write, because we want to share the stories we have inside us. We also tend to enjoy sharing our love of stories and writing.

It’s not like we get together and just talk about what we’re writing, either. As lovers of fiction, we tend to be fans of all kinds of stories and related things, and we like talking about those things, too.

It’s more than being able to talk to people about fiction, though. It’s about finding people who share this strange, solitary, contact-hungry thing we do. It’s about finding people who understand without needing to be told, who get why we do it, and what drives us, and how it itches at us sometimes. It’s about sitting with others and writing, of doing something on our own with company, and it being perfectly fine when we’re not talking, too.

It’s about finding your tribe. A place where you fit with similar-minded people, without needing to prove yourself.

I pride my NaNo region on being open, accessible, and welcoming. As an ML, I encourage people to come along to the events, and I try to make them as easy for people to get to (no matter how they travel), and run them for long hours to try to cater to as many schedules as we can. When new people arrive, we try to welcome them and ease them into the group.

Most of us are introverts. A lot of us are very bad at this social thing, through introvert tendencies, or social anxieties, or shyness, or lack of practice, or any other reason. The good thing about the NaNo community is that we’re all familiar with that kind of thing, either through personal experience or by dealing with others in that position. We get it. We don’t mind and we’ll do our best to make you feel comfortable, because we really do get it.

As social groups go, we’re one of the easiest for a writer to slide into and feel at home.

And because we’re all working towards the same thing, you get supported. You don’t need to explain what you’re doing to anyone (though you’re encouraged to tell people about your story, because that’s awesome); you can just come on in and join in. It doesn’t matter what your word count is: everyone encourages and supports everyone else. We give out stickers as rewards (pro tip: writers love stickers, particularly is they are cute or have dinosaurs on; if they have cute dinosaurs on them, prepare for a stampede), and one of the things we reward is write-in attendance. Because it’s something to be proud of and pleased about.

Even if you can’t get to the events in person, there are the online regional NaNoWriMo forums. We regularly have writers in parts of the region too distant to make our central events who set up threads to talk with each other, and organise their own meet-ups. (I wish I could help out with those more, but I can’t be everywhere, sadly!) For those in remote areas, they can get their contact and support through the forums. There are Twitter accounts set up for those who want to do the writing sprints in a group. IRC channels for those who like to use them. The list goes on!

So many options to join in and feel part of a group, regardless of where you are and whether you can make it to the in-person events. Just going onto the NaNo website and updating your word count is a reminder that you’re doing this amazing challenge with a whole heap of other people around the world. You’re amazing, and you’re not alone.

One of the best thing about NaNoWriMo is the community. Everyone is welcome here. I love it more than I can truly express.

Coming soon: proving you can do it

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Why NNWM: try something amazing

Part of the why NaNoWriMo is good for writers series.

A lot of people who come to NaNoWriMo for the first time have never written a novel before. This is something that often crops up: people of all ages stumble over the concept of NaNo and think ‘hey, I could have a go at that’.

Some of them have always wanted to write a novel. It might have been percolating at the back of their brain for years, and this is their excuse/chance to make it happen. Others come across it without the weight of that background and decide to have a go anyway.

This year, I am noticing that we’re getting several fanfic writers who have never written an original (i.e. non-fanfic) novel before, and this is their first try at that. (This isn’t the first time I’ve heard of this happening, but I’ve noticed it cropping up more often this year!)

This is all great! NaNo has created a safe, supportive place for people to try something that is daunting, scary, and really big. It’s so easy to say ‘one day I’ll write a novel’; NaNo helps ‘one day’ be ‘today’, ‘now’, ‘yes’.

For some, it is a case of making time. For others, it’s a matter of confidence. Because despite some opinions, not all writers have faith in what they’re doing. We’re a self-critical lot, seldom with a good opinion about our own work or our own worth.

Striking out on your own on a scary adventure when you think you’re probably going to suck is not an easy thing to do. It’s much more comfy to stay at home and do other stuff.

Setting out on a lunatic challenge with a mob of equally insane people who don’t give a shit about how good your work is, on the other hand, is completely different. It’s not just about you any more; it’s something bigger, and you don’t have to rely purely on your own personal motivation any more. You have MLs and fellow writers to help carry you along, word count goals and word wars to push you onwards, and dare-swapping parties to help you take it all a bit less seriously (and give you inspiration when yours is flagging!).

In many ways, NaNo is breaking down barriers and opening doors to those who, for whatever reason, haven’t brought themselves to do it on their own. It doesn’t matter if it’s a long-standing wish or a sudden urge prompted by someone mentioning the idea of writing a novel: you have this amazing thing in front of you, ripe for a tasting. NaNo makes the impossible and improbable feel possible.

You’re rushed through those opened doors in a happy crowd, and it’s all good. Whatever happens, it’s all good.

Coming soon: you’re not alone

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Why NNWM: long-term gains

AKA: It helps us to understand how and where we can make time to write

Part of the why NaNoWriMo is good for writers series.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, there are a lot of demands for our time and it can be difficult to fit writing into it all. It’s easy to say ‘I don’t have time’. NaNoWriMo opens a door to temporarily make time, but it can be more than that, too.

It doesn’t have to be only about explaining and diverting time to write for a short period of time. Being forced to shoehorn writing time into your schedule highlights those places you could take more advantage of, and helps us to critically examine our own assumptions about what we can and can’t do in the longer term.

This means looking for tactics and tools that can be applied year-round. NaNo encourages the daily writing habit (through daily wordcount goals, etc), and it gives you an opportunity to experiment with different solutions. Some of them are short-lived only (for example, I now take a lot of my annual leave from work during November), but others can be expanded into long-term habits.

This is where the annual writing challenge helped me greatly. Having to juggle NaNo (and MLing) and a full-time job meant that I had to be critical of my schedule in different ways in order to get everything achieved. I tried a few alternative ways to achieve my wordcounts – filling up my evenings rather than spending time with the family, binge-writing on the weekends and at write-ins to catch up, squeezing writing in to every moment of the day when my hands were idle, and so on – and eventually I discovered those pockets of time that I wasn’t making best use of (primarily, my daily commute to and from the day job). With some tweaking, these became my year-round writing times.

It requires understanding what’s sustainable and what’s not, and sometimes making sacrifices. That’s going to vary from person to person, depending on their dedication to spinning stories and the flexibility in their schedules and commitments.

This is an area where NaNo shines a light for us, and the beam may extend far beyond November’s boundaries if we choose to tilt it that way. So use it. Find that time you never knew you had and make stories in it.

Coming soon: a wonderful opportunity

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Why NNWM: the temporary timebox of imagination

AKA: Permission to focus on your writing.

Part of the why NaNoWriMo is good for writers series.

One article writer is of the opinion that “[writers] will keep on pounding the keyboards whether we support them or not”, and she can’t be more wrong. For some writers, that is true, but like all writing advice, it’s far from universal. I wouldn’t even say that they’re in the majority. (Assuming that ‘we’ means ‘anyone’.)

The truth is that many would-be writers simply don’t know how to make it work. Our lives are very busy with a glorious mix of school, family, work, gaming, sleeping, chores, friends, commitments, TV shows, reading, health, fitness, and other extra-curricular expectations. Everyone’s demands are different.

On top of that, writing is so frequently seen (usually by our friends and family) as ‘just a hobby’, some unimportant thing that we play at sometimes. The truth is, to put any kind of decent time into our writing, we have to sacrifice something else, and there lies the rub. How do we justify the time and energy needed to write?

(It’s interesting that we have to justify it at all but, as a general rule, we do.)

It’s not an easy choice to make or explain. The way that writing speaks to us seldom makes sense to non-writers (and especially to non-readers); how do we explain that we have these awesome hallucinations that we want to partially solidify and share with others? How do we explain that we have these stories that push and pressure us to be told? How do we do this without coming across as a crazy person?

NaNoWriMo circumvents this issue. It provides a month in which a writer can say, “I’m doing this crazy-fun challenge to write a novel in a month, so I’m going to be busy for the next 4 weeks.” It’s a special event. It’s temporary, so it can be a time-out from the norm. It’s communal (a bunch of people are doing this thing) and dictated by an external party (it happens every November), both of which lend weight to why you want to a) have a go and b) do it at a set time. It’s permission to step around the usual explanation requirements and boundaries that would otherwise get in the way of writing.

This makes sense to other people in our lives; there are valid reasons for the time we’re spending on this annual challenge. They tend to accept it, to give us the leeway that the challenge demands. It’s time-limited, so we can put off chores for a little while, and have a free pass on dropping out of regular social engagements. It provides us a space in which to do this weird imaginary exercise.

It also opens the door for less serious or dedicated writers to have a go. I know many participants who only ever write during NaNo and don’t have the urge to do it any other time. This is great! Here’s a space for them to enjoy themselves. (Note: this is different to those who only write during NaNo because they struggle to be able to do it any other time.)

NaNoWriMo is an easy way to explain to others that writing is a thing you like to do, by coming with a handy, easy explanation built in.

Coming soon: It also helps writers to understand how and where writing can fit into our lives.

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Why NNWM: Permission to be bad

Part of the why NaNoWriMo is good for writers series.

NaNoWriMo says that it’s okay to write bad stuff. Loose plotting, awkward phrasing, weirdly-depicted characters, holey timelines: it’s all good, as long as you’re progressing your story and building up that lovely wordcount.

This is a sticking-point in some people’s opinions, and yes, it produces bad writing. No-one disputes that. The thing is: that’s one of the good things about NaNo.

Writers want their stories to be good. They want to share them, and want to make them the best stories they can be. This desire is good and to be encouraged, but it can also get in the way.

For some writers, this desire leads to getting stuck. Endlessly polishing the first chapter can be very tempting, but it’s also a trap that stops us from getting any further in the story. (It’s also pointless until you’ve written the whole story anyway, in most cases.)

For other writers, it stops them from ever starting. The pressure to make it the best it can be coupled with the weight of a blank page can halt a writer in their creative tracks before they’ve even started.

Having a space in which it’s okay for your writing to not be perfect, to give yourself permission to make mistakes and let them lie, is really important to some writers. It lets writers throw down a meaningless, trashy first sentence to break the seal on a blank page, so they can follow it up with more useful, story-progressing sentences. It enables them to blast past the rough bits and get through the meat of their story, even if it’s cooked unevenly. It lets them get to the end.

(As I said previously: the point of NaNoWriMo is not to write bad stories that should be immediately published. The point is to write whole stories, with the intention of going back and polishing later. They’re not supposed to stay bad writing! It’s just okay for them to start out as bad writing.)

As one author (whom I can’t remember) famously said: “I can edit a bad page, but I can’t edit a blank one.”

NaNoWriMo lets you make a lot of bad pages, from which you can edit awesome pages (if you so choose).

Coming soon: permission to focus on your writing.

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