NaNoWriMo Is For Lazy Writers
National Novel Writing Month is for lazy writers, like myself.
It is for the people who call themselves a writer, but can’t remember the last time they wrote something they finished— let alone something they liked.
It is for the wannabes who like to walk into hipster coffee shops just to write — “justifying” their expensive something something soy caramel latte with a cat drawn on top.
It is for the simpletons who think writing novels is as easy as sitting down a few times a month to wack out 50,000 mediocre words and send them off to a publisher.
NaNoWriMo is not for the weak.
The concept is easy. Write 50,000 words in 30 days? Piece of cake. But people never anticipate the discipline it takes.
At first it is easy. 1,667 words a day is nothing. You might even get a couple thousand over that days goal.
Then you start to slack.
“I need a day off.”
“Netflix is calling my name!”
You slow down.
You lose momentum.
Next thing you know it’s Thanksgiving. You are sitting in a large chair, stomach filled with turkey and pie, watching a football game you don’t care about when it hits you. You have less than a week to write 30,000+ words.
It ain’t happening, kid.
Each year I start NaNoWriMo the same. A week or two before Nov. 1 I’ll come up with an idea. I’ll outline the characters. I’ll develop the beginning, middle, and end. I’ll know everything down to the name of their imaginary friend when they were five.
Then I’ll have the cover art. I am a graphic designer. I love beautiful covers. Nothing is more inspiring than having a kick ass cover for the book you are writing.
So the first rolls around and you are pumped. You have stalked up on coffee and sweets, created a music playlist to get you in the writing mood, and have allotted an hour every day to writing.
You know your story inside out and are beyond excited to write.
The first day you do 4,000 words. You are over the moon. First day done and you are already ahead of the game.
Second day comes along and you are just as excited. You want to keep up your lead, knowing it will get harder as the month goes on to find time. You end with 7,000 words. Fantastic.
By the end of the week you are tired. You are falling behind on work. You have 16,000 words. You are a little ahead of schedule so you tell yourself you can afford a day off.
One day off turns into the whole weekend off — and a Monday off for extra relaxing.
Suddenly you are behind again, but now you’ve lost momentum. You write 500 words and are lost. You forgot your protagonist’s drive. You reread what you previously wrote and get lost in how awful it sounds.
Slowly but surely, you give up.
You tell yourself you never expected to finish all 50,000 words anyway. You tell yourself you just wanted to see how far you could get. Yet, you tell yourself that you are still a writer.
The fact is that most people don’t win NaNoWriMo.
You’re not alone. After four years I haven’t completed it yet either, but that’s okay.
I’m still a writer, and you might be too.
Not writing all 50,000 words in a month doesn’t matter. What matters is what you do with those crappy words you do have.
You could stop. You could delete it all and pretend it never happened.
Or you could run with it.
It won’t happen over night. Maybe twice a week you spend a couple hours working on it. You never let that flame for it die — stay excited about your work.
It doesn’t matter how fast you write a novel — It matters that you are trying.
Novels aren’t written in a day and any good one is certainly not written to perfection in a month.
NaNoWriMo is meant to kick start the process. What you write in November isn’t the end all be all of your writing career. It is there to help build a support group of other writers just like you. And more importantly, it is there to help you remember why you love writing in the first place.
If you didn’t love writing you never would have even considered participating in NaNoWriMo and writing a novel in the first place.
You obviously love it — so just go make.
It doesn’t have to be perfect. You just have to give it a try.
And who knows, maybe you fall in love with NaNoWriMo. Maybe you write 50,000 words in 20 days and spend the next 10 writing an extra 20,000. Maybe you fail miserably, barely getting 10,000 words out on a page.
Either outcome is acceptable.
At the end of November, the timer isn’t up. December should be about re-cooperating, yes. But don’t just leave your novel there.
Continue.
Develop those characters even farther and finish that story you have grown to love.
Write a story you can’t help thinking about every day.
Edit.
Make it your own.
Then months later, when November is quickly approaching again, maybe you’ll look back in awe at what you’ve done. You’ll see months of hard work and endless caffeine highs and see an end product you are happy to have your name attached to.
I’m not saying I’ll finish a novel this November, but I am saying that I’ll start one and see where it takes me. That’s good enough for me.
Don’t be the lazy NaNoWriMo writer.
Participate, but don’t let that flame die.
Losing isn’t everything.
All that matters is that you don’t let that stop you.
Keep going.
Much Love,
Elly xx
THANKS FOR READING!
I’m Elly Pursel, university student, writer and filmmaker.
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