NaNoWriMo!

[ambitious_wench]

NaNoWriMo?

National Novel Writing Month.

Every November since 1999 there has been a concerted effort to write a novel of 50,000 words in one month. This is not about quality. It's about shear joy of writing. It's about giving yourself permission to write some real crap. It's about giving yourself room to make a mess.

This is the literary equivolent of a 12' x 8' finger painting done in a sunlight studio with brilliant colors. It will make a mess of the carpets, probably suck big time, and will have to be hidden away in the barn when it's done because you can't bear to torch it, and you can't stand the sight of it.

Some very good advice from last year: If you get stuck, add a ninja.

I swear, it worked for me. Just throw in a passing ninja, and things will liven up beautifully.
There are no continuity cops here. They have been barred from entry.

Now a fragment of the FAQ:

If I'm just writing 50,000 words of crap, why bother? Why not just write a real novel later, when I have more time?

There are three reasons.

1) If you don't do it now, you probably never will. Novel writing is mostly a "one day" event. As in "One day, I'd like to write a novel." Here's the truth: 99% of us, if left to our own devices, would never make the time to write a novel. It's just so far outside our normal lives that it constantly slips down to the bottom of our to-do lists. The structure of NaNoWriMo forces you to put away all those self-defeating worries and START. Once you have the first five chapters under your belt, the rest will come easily. Or painfully. But it will come. And you'll have friends to help you see it through to 50k.

2) Aiming low is the best way to succeed. With entry-level novel writing, shooting for the moon is the surest way to get nowhere. With high expectations, everything you write will sound cheesy and awkward. Once you start evaluating your story in terms of word count, you take that pressure off yourself. And you'll start surprising yourself with a great bit of dialogue here and a ingenious plot twist there. Characters will start doing things you never expected, taking the story places you'd never imagined. There will be much execrable prose, yes. But amidst the crap, there will be beauty. A lot of it.

3) Art for art's sake does wonderful things to you. It makes you laugh. It makes you cry. It makes you want to take naps and go places wearing funny pants. Doing something just for the hell of it is a wonderful antidote to all the chores and "must-dos" of daily life. Writing a novel in a month is both exhilarating and stupid, and we would all do well to invite a little more spontaneous stupidity into our lives.

For those of my friends who are alt.devilbunnies authors, be sure to sign up for the LJ community altdevilbunnies if you are going to participate. We don't insist that your NaNoWriMo novel be a devilbunnies story.