Before I get too far into this week's post, I want to start with the caveat that every writer has their own comfort zones, their own acceptable word count, and their own rituals. Some people do it faster, some people have more re-writes, and some people have been doing this so long that it practically seems like magic when yet another manuscript slides off their desk.
With all of that said, NaNoWriMo prepares you to be an author in the same way that watching gonzo porn prepares you for a night of romance. Some of the same elements are indeed present, but if you think this is the way it works then you are going to be sorely disappointed.
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| Seriously, that is NOT how this works! |
Bad Habits Lead To Bad Writing
For those not familiar with this November event, NaNoWriMo is when everyone hunkers down in November to hammer out that novel they've been talking about for years. You have to hit a particular word count, which means that you need to get several thousand words a day in order to be done with it by the end of the month.
Is this real writing? Absolutely! People are sitting down and putting words on the page to tell a story, and that is literally all it takes to be considered "real" writing. However, as with my adult film comparison above, there's more to writing a novel than just the mechanical process of putting one word in front of the other.
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| There may not be a lot more to it, but there is more. |
However, Nano teaches you to write at a dead sprint when a novel is really more like a marathon. There are some writers who can put out a manuscript in a month, but the Stephen Kings and Robert Louis Stevensons are sort of the exceptions that prove the rule. Most people cannot hammer out several thousand words of prose in a sitting... especially not if they have a social life, a full-time job that isn't selling books, etc. And that doesn't even get into the editing process, re-writes, submissions, self-publishing, sales, and the hundreds of other areas you need to be skilled in if you want this to be your job.
The pace required to complete the challenge keeps you going forward with no time to pause and evaluate what you're putting down. Whether you thought of a change that would improve your plot, or you realized there's a mistake, you just don't have the time to go back and change it. Anymore than you'd stop to tie your shoe during a sprint. Worse, if it turns out your story needs more space to stretch out, but you've only budgeted your efforts to hit the minimum word count, then you're going to add an extra stress trigger into your brain because you "failed" to accomplish what you set out to do.
I could go on, but in many ways, Nano is kind of like a crash diet. You will achieve what you set out to, but it isn't really a sustainable result. And if this is something you want to maintain long-term, you need to develop better habits, and make more permanent changes to your routine rather than just slam energy drinks and go nuts for one month out of the year.
Hey, It's Just For Fun!
If you are one of those people who just wants to sit down and pound away at the keys for fun this November, far be it from me to hold you back! If you're someone who is using this as your excuse to finally indulge and see if you have what it takes, or you're looking for something exciting to do when going back into quarantine, then by all means go for it!
However, my point is that the pocket universe of NaNoWriMo that crops up every year is not how things work if you're a professional writer. And just because you managed to finish a manuscript for Nano, that book has no better chance than any other at becoming your meal ticket just because of how quickly you wrote it. If anything, I'd suggest that it's probably going to need a great deal more revisions than something that was put out with more attention to detail, and at a steadier pace.
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| Pshaw, this writing thing is easy! |
And I'm sure there are people out there right now saying that of course it's different when this is your job! Stop ragging on people who are just doing this for fun! But the human brain is exactly as smart as we'd expect electrified jello to be, and it often draws false conclusions. Whether it's comparing yourself to that fitness model who spends a dozen hours in the gym and has an entire lighting crew to make them look their best, or watching a romantic comedy and forgetting that acting that way in real life would get you slapped with several felony charges, even the smartest among us are working with brains that are pretty stupid.
So if you want to participate in NaNoWriMo, please, do so! Break that keyboard, write your story, and have a blast with it! But if you want to be a professional novelist, understand that the Nano format is not a great way to hone your craft, and to produce the best quality work you're capable of. And while a crash workout designed to get your toned and fit fast might get a lot of immediate results, it isn't a great strategy if you want to become a body builder.
Lastly, don't get too hung up on your daily word count. A couple of paragraphs a day will have a complete manuscript in less than a year... you don't need to go overboard with it.
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That's all for this week's Craft of Writing! For more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, or at My Amazon Author Page where you can find books like my cat noir novel Marked Territory, my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife, or my most recent short story collection The Rejects!
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