What is NaNoWriMo?
It’s October, so the weather is getting cooler and we’re readying ourselves for Halloween. And the holidays are just around the corner.
But. Before that. November.
It’s NaNoWriMo time!
What does NaNoWriMo stand for? National Novel Writing Month. And it happens every year in November—from the first day to the last day. And you’ll need every one of those days (most likely) if you’re participating.
But, before we get into how many words you have to do every day during NaNoWriMo, or anything else, let’s quickly go over the history.
What is NaNoWriMo?
The first NaNoWriMo, in 1999, curiously was in July. According to my deep-dive Wikipedia research, it was moved to November because the weather is worse. I get it.
From 21 participants in the San Francisco Bay area to over 400,000 people in 2022, every year seems to draw more people in. There are lots of people out there wanting to tell a story, and sometimes the best way to get that story out is to have a group of people suffering along with you.
In 2022, around 40,000 people “won” NaNoWriMo.
How do you “win” NaNoWriMo
Well, to understand how to win at NaNoWriMo, we need to basically go over the rules.
The NaNoWriMo considers 50,000 words to be sufficiently long to be a “novel”. According to their website, a novel is a “lengthy work of fiction”, and the vagueness of the definition is a feature and not a bug. This allows participants to work on any number of different projects—from parts of a trilogy to a stand-alone novella (and a lot of other things) without getting bogged down in the technicalities of what a “novel” is.
The novel is sort of irrelevant, I think; the writing is what matters.
Finish your 50,000 words (of whatever you’re writing) in the month, from 12:00 a.m. November 1st through to 11:59:59 p.m. November 30th (local time), and you’re a winner.
You even get a certificate for completing your novel in that amount of time.
How many words per day?
Here’s where NaNoWriMo can get a little daunting. On average, you need to write 1667 words a day. While this sounds like a lot, and it is a fair bit, it is quite a bit more manageable than you might initially think. There are lots of tips and tricks to getting to this target without panicking too much, and we’re going to go over some of them soon.
How many words do you need to write per day for NaNoWriMo? Well, truly? Whatever you can manage. There is the desire to “win” by completing the 50,000 words. But that doesn’t mean that your novel will be finished in 50,000 words (you might need 150,000).
The act of getting into the habit of writing matters more than writing 1667 words a day.
How do you participate in NaNoWriMo?
There are two answers to this question.
One of them is the very simple and straightforward one. Sit down with a laptop, paper and pens, napkins, or whatever else you want to use to write and just write. That’s it. Write your heart out. Participating in NaNoWriMo doesn’t require anything else—no memberships, no teams, no nothing—in order to finish the goal.
The second way is, in my opinion, the better way.
Wander over to the NaNoWriMo website (nanowrimo.org) and make an account. Once you have an account, there are a number of tools available to you to help you finish your work. There is a user dashboard that lets you keep track of how much you’ve written, fun badges to keep you motivated, and also ways to connect with friends for that extra bit of accountability.
NaNoWriMo accountability
While the dashboard is useful, sometimes all you need is another person to write with.
Accountability and knowing that someone else is going through the process can help you to stay motivated and on task. But it’s important to remember that while winning is fun, it’s not the goal.
You should hold yourself accountable to what you reasonably want to finish. This brings us to the question of how can we best set goals and prepare for NaNoWriMo? It’s a great question and I’ll be tackling that question later on this week in another article.
Need ideas for NaNoWriMo?
Nothing will kill a NaNoWriMo push faster than writers block. It’s a very difficult thing to deal with, especially when you’re trying to hit NaNo’s word count of 1667 words a day. So how do you best avoid writer’s block during the month of November?
Here are three simple tips:
Go in with a plan.
Give yourself a buffer.
Don’t stress out.
Let’s address these in a bit more detail.
Go in with a plan
Plans don’t need to be complicated, but having a plan for NaNoWriMo beats the pants off not having one. There are some people who can just “wing” an entire novel, but I’d bet they’re in the minority.
Having an outline or skeleton of what you want to write can really help you to stay on top of your goals. If you get stuck in one part of the story, you are able to move on to a later (or earlier) part of the book and work on that while your ideas coalesce. Remember you don’t have to write everything in the order it happens. Be flexible.
If you are looking for ways to balance the plotter and pantser halves of your soul, I wrote about this.
Give yourself a buffer
Whenever I’m writing or editing anything “on the clock”, I’m keenly aware of the passage of time.
This means that I feel like I have all the time in the world at the beginning. It also means that I constantly feel stressed near the end. My way of avoiding, or at least lessening, this burden is to try and get as far ahead as I can. If I write 1667 words on my first day and I have time and motivation, I keep going.
Even a few hundred extra words can make all the difference later.
What if you fall short one day? Or two? Sure, it happens. No worries. But take advantage of when inspiration hits and let yourself slide into the flow of things.
Giving yourself a buffer gives you a greater ability to finish an objectively challenging task.
Don’t stress out
I need to say this again. Don’t stress out.
It’s very easy to feel like you’ve fallen behind and are unable to complete NaNoWriMo because “there just isn’t enough time”. Remember that the event is more about writing than completing. If you finish 10,000 words and not 50,000, that’s not a failure. Participating and getting words down is a success, 50,000 words or not.
Remember also that you could also have a massive day where you catch up and get ahead.
Don’t stress out.
Just write.
And then write some more.
Sometimes when you’re banging your head against a wall, it’s worth remembering that you’re not alone. Here’s an article that Neil Gaiman wrote, a bit of a pep-talk, if you will.
So, off you go.
Good luck and just write.
