NaNoWriMo 2021

What exactly is NaNoWriMo? Well, it stands for NAtional NOvel WRIting MOnth, which is November. It is a national “contest” where you sign up to write 50,000 words in the 30 days of November. There is a website where you enter your project and keep track of your word count. Although you can complete a novel you have already started, you cannot count any words written before November 1. And you don’t need to finish your novel by November 30; you just need to write 50,000 words of a novel in those 30 days. In fact, you don’t even have to write a novel. No one is looking over your shoulder if you are writing nonfiction instead, and you want to see if you can write 50,000 words in a month.

How long is 50,000 words? you might ask. It is roughly 250 pages of printed text. Most novels are longer than that, but 50,000 words does qualify as a novel. Novels usually run 70,000 to 100,000. But some are shorter and some are longer.

So what do you win in this contest? And who is the winner? Everyone who writes their 50,000 words in November is considered a winner. So you are competing against only yourself. And what do you win? You can print yourself a certificate if you win. You  can also buy yourself a winner’s sweatshirt or mug from the website; you can do that even if you don’t win, but you cannot print that certificate unless you win.

Who counts the words? It used to be that you had to copy your novel into the website, and they would count your words for you. You didn’t need to copy only what you just wrote. You could copy the whole document and paste it into the website, and it would count your words and update the word count. Many have wondered if you could just type the same word 50,000 times and win. I really don’t know, but would you really want to do that?

But things have changed. Now NaNoWriMo is on the honor system. You don’t have to copy and paste any more. You just enter your current word count. When you have a new word count,  you update it with your new word count. You can update every day, twice a day, whenever you want. But you earn these online badges if you update every day for a certain number of days. Frankly, I don’t pay much attention to the badges.

You can have buddies online—people you know who are also writing–and you can see their word counts. There are geographic groups you can belong to and send messages. Frankly, however, I fine the website confusing as far as finding buddies and messaging. 

There is a thing called a “write-in.” People would go to a certain place and write together, maybe to a coffee shop or a library or a bookstore. They were prearranged, or you could also just set up your own write-in with friends. These days, most of the write-ins are virtual.

I had thought the last time I had done NaNoWriMo before this year was the first year I participated: 2011, when I wrote my novel called Trashy Novel, later renamed Girls of a Feather: The Misadventures of Four College Girls (available on Amazon).

I wrote 51,302 words that November by the 24th of the month! I was on a roll. I attended a weekly write-in, and a couple of other occasional write-ins. I made a friend who is still a friend at that weekly write-in.

Come to find out (because NaNoWriMo keeps track of these things) that I participated several other times. In 2013 I started to participate with The Best Grammar Workbook Ever. I got to 4380 words, so I don’t know quite what happened. The book got written, has done and continues to sell really well, but I decided not to write it during NaNoWriMo apparently. 

In 2017 I entered with my self-publishing how-to guide. I got to 32,940 words, which was probably as long as that book was. I did publish it, but later took it off the market because things at Amazon had changed so much for self-publishers. It wasn’t selling well enough to update at that time.

And in 2018, I won again with my dating memoir (nonfiction) When Life Hands You Frogs (also available on Amazon), although the book didn’t come out until 2021. That win was with 50,030 words.

I believe I started a sequel to Girls of a Feather in 2012, but after writing for two days, I lost my whole document somewhere in the computer black hole, and just couldn’t seem to recreate what I wrote, so I gave it up.

This November I am writing my first romance novel. I recently attended an online romance novel conference, which was excellent. I have always enjoyed reading romantic-oriented novels, so I thought I might like to write them. Very difficult indeed.

Oh, by the way, there are two primary methods of writing a novel: pantsing and plotting. Plotters tend to outline in detail before they write. Panters sit down and hope the book will write itself. Most writers are probably a hybrid of the two types. My 2011 novel was pantsed. The romance novel was going to be pantsed, but I found I really had to plan a little ahead with this one, so it is more of a hybrid. 

It is November 26, and I have written 47,000 words, so I will win this year. And I haven’t written a word yet today. I think the book will turn out to be a bit longer than 50,000 words when finished, and it is very rough, which is fine. NaNoWriMo is for rough drafts or anything else. We turn off our Inner Editor, and I have managed to do that this time.

For more info, go to the NaNoWriMo website.