NaNoWriMo's the name, a novel is the game

It’s that little voice inside her that tells her she shouldn’t write, that her writing is silly and that she should just stop right now. She’s even named the voice … Pyra.

But this is November. National Novel Writing Month (the cool kids call it NaNoWriMo). When thousands of folks like Woestehoff take the challenge to write a 50,000-word novel in 30 days. So, Woestehoff has no time to deal with Pyra, her internal editor.

“I send her off, letting her know that I dislike her very much and want her to go away,” the Greeley writer said. “If she doesn’t leave, I just don’t pay attention to her. If what I write is horrible, that’s okay.”

Quanitity over quality. That’s what it’s about for NaNo-ers, or NaNo-ites or whatever their sleep-reduced, over-caffeinated brains call themselves. It’s not about writing good … err, I mean well. It’s just about writing. Getting words on paper. At least 1,667 per day.

NaNo (as the cooler kids call it) was founded by Chris Baty in Oakland, Calif., who started with 21 writers in 1999 (only six finished). Thanks to the power of the Net, word(s) spread and aimless would-be authors from around the world have come together on www.nanowrimo.org. More than 75,000 writers are expected to participate this year.

“It is a great creative outlet that sets restrictions on editing yourself, and I really need that,” said Andy Segal of Greeley who finished his first novel last year in November and is working on his second for this year.

But all of this incredible word production comes at a cost because there are just so many hours in a day. The dog will walk himself. The dishes will get done in December. Sleep? Over-rated. Friends and family? They probably already know you’re a little nuts. And those Must-See TV shows become Must-Tivo.

“Housekeeping definitely slips,” said Robin Dean of Fort Collins, “But I’m embarrassed to admit that I also lose pretty much all contact with my friends who aren’t doing NaNo during the month.”

When November is over, when the words have all been counted and winners (those who cross the 50,000-word mark) are celebrated, what do these fatigued word generators earn?

Not much really. They can print out a certificate. And most, like Woestehoff, will print out their novels (usually about 100-150 pages) and use up a bunch of printer toner. “I will definitely take it around with me everywhere I go and brag and force my friends to acknowledge it, and then they give me the ‘She’s crazy’ look behind my back,” she said.

[Jared Fiel / NEXTnc]

November is National Novel Writing Month

Today marks the start of National Novel Writing Month, affectionately called "nanowrimo" by the tens of thousands of its participants. Now in its 8th year, the month's premise is simple, really: Write 50,000 words in 30 days and earn the right to call yourself a novelist.

This fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants approach to writing forces novelists to get the words down and out, instead of stressing about little things like symmetry and syntax. Gone is the luxury of finding the exact turn for a phrase. Nanowrimo forces participants to think about quantity, not quality. About 1,667 words a day.

According to the nanowrimo website:

Make no mistake: You will be writing a lot of crap. And that's a good thing. By forcing yourself to write so intensely, you are giving yourself permission to make mistakes. To forgo the endless tweaking and editing and just create. To build without tearing down.

The creators believe that the noveling process can be a fun and even social experience, so they've recruited a bunch of municipal liaisons to motivate writers in their area, including LA. There are group "write-ins" taking place throughout the city, too. So if you see a bunch of over-caffeinated folks, furiously pounding away at their laptops, you've probably stumbled onto one of them.

For more information on the month and local happenings, please visit the nanowrimo site. It's not too late to join in the fun...

**This LAist poster is going to give Nanowrimo a try this year for the first time...and will be giving word count updates a during the month.

[Christine N. Ziemba / LAist]

Novel approach

Bowie resident Rise Sheridan-Peters plans to
attempt her sixth novel next month in a national
challenge where people sign up online and try
to write at least 50,000 words during November.

It’s said that everyone has at least one idea for a story in them, and yours might be a doozy — a tale that would, once published, rocket to the top of the national best-seller lists.

There’s only one problem: You need to write it first.

Getting down to the actual nuts and bolts of writing can be difficult, but there’s nothing like some competition to get the creative juices flowing — or at least get the words down on paper.

Next month might bring just what you needed to get the ideas going.

National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo, began in 1999 in Oakland, Calif., when 21 people challenged themselves to write a story of at least 50,000 words during November. Six of them completed the task. Over the next six years, the challenge has grown, until last year about 59,000 people participated from countries all over the world, of which almost 10,000 won.

Winning is a relative term. It means those who reached the 50,000 goal, not any judgement on the stories they actually wrote. But in NaNoWriMo, the goal is quantity not quality, at least for the first draft. As one might hear around the forums, there’s always time to edit in December.

The word count needed is impressive — about 1,660 words per day, every day, for a month.

Nicole Lucier of University Park has been participating in NaNoWriMo since 2002.
‘‘A friend in Ann Arbor told me she was thinking of doing it,” Lucier said. ‘‘It sounded like fun, and through my friend I knew several other people who were organizing an online (because of differences in location) support and encouragement list to get us through the month.”

Lucier uses the word count to motivate herself through November. ‘‘I chatted every day with my friends online, and we used Excel spreadsheets, daily word goals, and critical point rewards at the 10,000 word marking points to keep us going,” she said of her first year. ‘‘My daily goal took me about an hour, and I would sit down with my laptop — disconnected from the Internet — and get it done.”

She’s far from the only county resident involved in NaNoWriMo. Rise Sheridan-Peters of Bowie is in her sixth year.

‘‘I tripped over it while wandering around the internet,” she said. ‘‘I’m ... always looking for new things to try, I like to write, I’d always wanted to write and finish a novel, I’m a short-attention-span poster child and deadlines motivate me ... there were a lot of reasons [to join].”

The number of people joining increases each year, inducting new NaNoWriMo freshman each November. Tiffany Mathews was one of those last year, and is going for her second attempt in 2006.

‘‘I generally plot [the story] out first,” Mathews said. ‘‘That way it’s easier to pace the story and I’m more likely to get close.”

Interacting with other people trying for the same masochistic goal seems to help a number of people.

‘‘I didn’t attend write-ins the first year,” Lucier said. ‘‘I preferred to write at home, without music or talking around me, and where people also couldn’t see my changing facial expressions as I worked out chapters, but I did attend an initial get-to-know-you meeting with other D.C. writers and a midpoint dinner hosted by our municipal liaison — where I pulled a plot point out of a hat, which got me through a lull in my own ideas — and I hosted the thank-goodness-it’s-over party at my apartment that year.”

Getting help from outside sources, whether they be a plot from a hat or a thread in one of the forums at the Web site, www.nanowrimo.org, is another way of keeping yourself writing through the month.

Sheridan-Peters, who has won — reached the 50,000 word mark — every year so far said, ‘‘To keep myself motivated, I volunteered to coordinate write-ins for the D.C. area. I’ve been the D.C.-area municipal liaison for years. That way, if I were to fail, I would fail very, very publicly. Avoiding public humiliation is a great spur.”

She said that in addition to that, she also talked her best friend into signing up with her their first year, in 2001, and recently her 16-year-old daughter Kendra Gresham has joined as well.

‘‘There is nothing like having a word-war with your teenager to get your competitive juices flowing,” she said.
Words wars involve two or more people seeing who can write the most words in a set amount of time.

‘‘The important thing is not to be scared by the word count,” Mathews said. ‘‘It’s good to try, even if you don’t make the final count.”

Lee Budar-Danoff of Columbia is the municipal liaison for this area. She helps organize the kick-off event, as well as keep track of write-ins and other events around the area. She said that in week one, when ideas are fresh, and in week four, when the pressure of the deadline starts to mount, motivation is not as difficult. The toughest times lie in between.

‘‘In weeks two and three, reality sets in,” she said. ‘‘Writers realize the need to continue writing every day to make that deadline of 50,000 words in thirty days. Writing is often a solitary effort, and easy to put off when there is laundry to do, dirty dishes piling up or hungry children at our knees. At this point, I recommend that writers break out of their lonely situation and participate in something social.”

That she said can range from attending a write-in to participating in the Web site forums to just reading the motivational e-mails sent to participants.

‘‘We find all kinds of ways to support or goad each other into writing: word-count challenges, bribes of food prepared by others, fears of ridicule if we don’t finish after telling family and friends of our effort, and of course keeping our eyes on the prize: being able to state, at the end of the month, that we are novelists!”

The number of National Novel Writing Month participants — and winners — has increased dramatically since its inception in 1999.
Participation numbers are approximate.
1999: 21 participants, six winners
2000: 140 participants, 29 winners
2001: 5,000 participants, about 700 winners
2002: 13,500 participants, about 2,100 winners
2003: 25,500 participants, about 3,500 winners
2004: 42,000 participants, about 6,000 winners
2005: 59,000 participants, 9,769 winners
Source: www.nanowrimo.org

[Jessica Loder / Gazette.Net]

The write stuff: Novelists take on challenge to write 50,000 words in 30 days

Andra Marquardt had a science fiction novel "banging around" in her head for the past year. She let it out last month.

The 36-year-old landscape surveyor from Mandan was one of thousands of wannabe writers around the world to take part in the National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo.

The idea is to write a 50,000-word novel in November. That's an average of 1,667 words a day for 30 days. It's enough to fit in a 175-page book.

"I made it - it's 50,315 words," Marquardt said of her novel featuring futuristic galaxy travel.

"The Red Dagger" was completed on Tuesday, a day before the deadline, she said.
She spent about three hours a day writing the novel on a computer about the size of paperback novel.

"I was pretty confident I was going to make it," she said. "I punched out 10,000 words in the last week."

Marquardt said there is no secret to speedy inkslinging "but it helps not to have a life."

Chris Baty, a 32-year-old freelance writer from Oakland, Calif., started NaNo-WriMo in 1999. That year, only a dozen people participated. Baty said he expects 59,000 people from every state and 30 countries to take part this year.

Baty expects 6,000 to reach the goal of being a "winner," the term used for the 50,000-word club. He's made the winner's list every year, including 2005.

Baty calls the project a "30-day kick in the pants for would-be writers." It's done in November because it's "generally ravaged with bad weather."

The goal is quantity over quality.

Baty said the 50,000-word first draft is a "blueprint for a second manuscript."

A few writers have turned their rapid-written novels into "big-time book deals," Baty said. Most just have bragging rights for having written a book.

"All you win is the satisfaction of having done it," said Derri Scarlett, of Bismarck. The 47-year-old copy editor at the Bismarck Tribune finished her novel, "In Search of Grace."

The novel "is about a woman searching for her missing daughter who finds herself instead," Scarlett said.

Scarlett, one of about 50 North Dakotans who participated in the project, finished her 50,600-word novel on Saturday.

Baty said people from all occupations participate in the novel-writing project and journalists make up a good percentage of them.

"Those are the people that are drawn under the magical and terrifying power of the deadline," Baty said.

The NaNoWriMo Web site offers help to novelists with writer's block. They can get tips from their fellow "caffeinated and frenzied" writers, Baty said, by posting questions.

A sampling ranges from such queries as "What happens to coal when you spit on it?" to "Am burning two of my characters alive, Yes, morbid and sad, but it has to be done. … I need to know how burnt flesh smells."

Crysta Parkinson, news editor at the Williston Herald, said Wednesday that she would not make the novel-writing deadline - she was hampered by the desire for perfection.

"I will finish it eventually, but not this month," said Parkinson, 26, the mother of three. "I only made it to about 30,000 words."

Her novel, which has yet to be titled, is about a little girl left on the streets of New York after her father killed her mother, she said. Fiction is more difficult to write than fact, Parkinson said.

Baty said the quest for perfection goes against the grain of the novel-writing project.

"Really, the goal is to turn off the inner-editor and embrace the idea of imperfection and allow yourself to make mistakes," Baty said.

Parkinson said about five people were writing the 30-day novels in the Williston area but none was expected to finish.

Baty said the goal of a 50,000-word novel is "very doable" and several have written two novels during the time limit. Three people have written three novels in a month, he said.

"Their typing fingers should be bronzed," he said.

[JAMES MacPHERSON / The Bismarck Tribune]

How to Write a Novel in 30 Days

Are you convinced you have a novel in you but just don't want to spend all that time and mental effort to actually work on it?

If that's the case, you could join 60,000 other intrepid, wanna-be novelists competing in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo for short) -- a sprint to finish a 50,000-word novel from scratch during the month of November.

Word count is what matters in this race, and those words can be "crap," says NaNoWriMo founder Chris Baty, a 33-year-old from Oakland, Calif. This is a contest that values enthusiasm and perseverance over craft, quantity over quality.

Baty, a freelance journalist who never had aspirations to become a fiction writer, came up with the idea for NaNoWriMo in 1999. "I had been drinking too much coffee and wanted to think of something fun to do with friends," said Baty, who has himself completed seven -- in his words -- "mediocre" manuscripts.

From its humble beginnings with 21 participants and six finishers (or "winners" in NaNoWriMo parlance) the contest has grown exponentially, to 42,000 participants and just shy of 6,000 winners last year.

NaNoWriMo's popularity is due in no small part to the Internet, where writers from all over the world can commiserate, celebrate and share ideas in Web forums. You can even get those sticky plot points worked out in one of the forum's threads. Some of the questions these would-be novelists need answered include: Could a dog accidentally hotwire a go-kart? How much does a Singapore Sling cost in Malaysia? How might a murderous beautician immobilize her clients using only hair-care products?

"It is very lighthearted," admits Baty, but he adds, "It's a month to run amok in your own imagination."

Creating a 'Chick Lit' Empire

Though many don't finish the race, and the vast majority don't expect a book deal -- or in some cases, to even let anyone ever see what they've written -- seven participants have had novels that began in NaNoWriMo picked up by publishers.

Lani Diane Rich joined NaNoWriMo on Halloween night in 2002 when she was living in Anchorage, Alaska and "bored to tears." Rich had attempted to write novels before but said that each time, she got to chapter five and wanted to "drop a bomb and kill all the characters."

So Rich joined the contest and she says it "opened up this magical literary free fall." She wrote 2,000 words a day, even if they weren't that great. "And once you stop worrying about them being bad, it started being good," she said.

After a lot of editing, that first NaNoWriMo effort became "Time Off for Good Behavior," which was published in 2004 by Warner Books and won the Romance Writers of America RITA award for Best Debut Novel. Rich's 2003 NaNoWriMo effort became "Maybe Baby," published this year. This year, Rich is starting another book in the "chick lit" genre, tentatively titled "Ex and the Single Girl."

Despite her success, Rich says there's nothing easy about writing or having the discipline to do it every day. But for some writers, the goal and the community support of NaNoWriMo works. "I'm not agonizing over every little thing," she said. "It allows my brain to open up."

A First-Timer Catching the Writing Bug

Janet Bowler, a 57-year-old former high school teacher in Astoria, Ore., was inspired to try her hand at NaNoWriMo by her teenage daughter, who participated the last two years.

"I didn't know what she was doing that first year," Bowler said. "I talked about getting a Spyware program to figure out what she was doing on her computer all the time."

This year, Bowler's daughter is in a student exchange program in Austria and can't participate, so Bowler is standing in as a "surrogate."" As of Nov. 9, Bowler had already hit just over 21,500 words -- almost halfway to the goal.

"Things are going much better than I anticipated," said Bowler, who writes about 2,000 words a day.

On midnight of Nov. 30, when (and if) she reaches her goal, Bowler said she plans to put her manuscript away for a few months, then revisit it for editing.

And though music is her first passion, Bowler says she's caught the writing bug through the experience. "I started it as a one-shot deal," she said. "But when you get so involved with it and the characters, it gets fun. It ends up being a mini-vacation."

And that, says Chris Baty, is exactly what he intended when he started NaNoWriMo. But does Baty's contest mock the craft and painstaking effort that goes into writing a novel?

"People might say, 'Oh just what the world needs, another mediocre novel.' But yes, that is exactly what the world needs," he said. "Making art is a visceral pleasure ... it's the joy of creation."

[JONANN BRADY / ABCNews]

Novel writing contest seeds interest in aspiring authors

The clock strikes midnight, and all across the nation, thousands of writers rush to their computers to compete in the National Novel Writing Month's annual competition.

For students who aspire to write a novel, the NaNoWriMo is offering a chance to do just that. Starting Nov. 1 at midnight, writers will have 30 days to complete a 50,000-word story.

"It's an opportunity to knock something off your to-do list," Austin senior Brandi Ledenbach said.

"Not many people can say they wrote a whole novel in one month," she said.

According to the NaNoWriMo Web site, this is a chance for anyone who has even momentarily considered writing a novel.

The idea is for amateur writers to develop their skills and maybe even get published.

"What I read on the Web site was true," Denton freshman Sarah Anisowicz said.

"Writing a novel is always one of those things you want to do, but never get around to doing," she said.

Sign-ups began Oct. 1 and will continue until the competition begins.

Even though no writing may be done prior to Nov. 1, the month of October is usually used for preparation.

"Most people spend the month creating outlines and doing background research," Ledenbach said.

Some writers choose their themes well in advance. Anisowicz said her story will be a fantasy novel, although she has yet to work out the specifics.

On the other hand, some novelists enjoy the thrill of waiting until the last minute to choose a topic.

"I'm looking forward to finding out what I'm going to write," Shawnee, Kan., sophomore Rea Corbin said.

"I haven't decided for sure yet. And if tradition holds true, I won't decide until Halloween," she said.

Once the competition begins, Ledenbach said "it's a challenge" for writers to meet the deadline while balancing school, jobs and social lives.

"I'm definitely looking forward to late night writing sprees, hopefully spurred on by caffeine and writer friends, both at home and here at school," Corbin said.

Often participants who accept the challenge return again and again.

"I found out about NaNoWriMo like I find out about most things -- completely on accident," Corbin said.

"The idea was just crazy enough to appeal to me. That was about four years ago, and I've been doing it ever since," she said.

Corbin said writers have come up with creative ways to reward themselves because the only tangible award is a downloadable certificate of completion.

"When I'm done ... it's the 'thank God it's over party!'" Anisowicz said.

Anisowicz said that, despite a severe lack of sleep, NaNoWriMo offers a chance to produce a novel.

She also said it puts school in prospective because after all, what's a two-page essay compared to a 50,000 word novel?

The way to win the NaNoWriMo contest is by writing 50,000 words by midnight on November 30. Every year, there are many winners.

Although no winners are given publishing contracts through the contest, the Web Site says many participants have been published through their own means.

There are no "Best Novel" or "Quickest-Written Novel" awards given out, but all winners get an official "Winner" web icon and certificate.

They are also all added to NaNoWriMo's hallowed winner's page, and receive a handsome winner's certificate and web icon.

[KELLY MYERS / The Lariat Online]

Writer's novel idea: Dash off book in month

In the olden days, novels were produced by combining one rickety typewriter, a drafty garret and years of neurotic hand-wringing.

Now meet Chris Baty of Oakland. At 31, he's the brash, friendly inventor of the literary microwave oven called National Novel Writing Month.

"NaNoWriMo," as Baty calls it, is this month.

Since 1999, Baty has spent one month a year furiously pounding out a new 50,000-word novel. With five such efforts under his belt, he readily admits: "None of them have been published. Two have been buried deeply in a hole in my back yard. I just pretend those didn't happen. I have two others that, with a lot of work, could become actual books."

The fifth book – which was actually the first, chronologically – is almost ready to be published, Baty says. In the meantime, he's traveling to promote his nonfiction book, "No Plot? No Problem!" (Chronicle, $14.95), subtitled "a low-stress, high-velocity guide to writing a novel in 30 days."

The book echoes information on Baty's Web site, www.nanowrimo.org, where last year more than 25,000 people registered for the 2003 campaign.

Baty believes that while it might take a while to write the Great American Novel, the Mediocre American First Draft is another matter. The only thing standing between most people and their dream of finishing a novel, he says, is the lack of a deadline. He fixes that by creating an absurdly unrealistic deadline and some devious ways to shame oneself into meeting it. (One participant publicly vowed to commit his life savings to the National Rifle Association, which he loathed, if he failed to make deadline. He reached 50,000 words in the nick of time.)

The NaNoWriMo campaign emphasizes quantity over quality, rejects revision until after the first draft is born and advises writers to fuel up on caffeine whenever they're gripped by the urge to toss their laptops beneath the wheels of a speeding Hummer.

Baty doesn't oppose producing great work – he just thinks that lowering one's standards also sets free creative inhibitions.

He isn't the first to divine ways to avoid the tortuous years of chewing one's own hair to produce a book of fiction. Robert J. Ray's out-of-print guide "The Weekend Novelist" remains popular in resale circles for its tips on managing the mysterious beast called the novel.

In his book "On Writing," Stephen King allowed as the first drafts of his own novels are usually done within a few months.

Still, those who have devoted themselves to fiction say Baty's notion has its limits.

"The idea gives me vertigo," says Neal Chandler, who runs the creative-writing program at Cleveland State University.

"There are people who would advise you just to plow ahead, that revision is the enemy, partly because the great danger with the novel is that it will never be finished. Ever," Chandler says. "There's some real truth that, for the sake of the book, you should keep writing to figure out what the trajectory is."

Mark Winegardner is more blunt. He doesn't consider 50,000 words much of a novel, nor does he think those 50,000 words are likely to be all that useful to their creators.

"I don't believe in people just up and writing their novel any more than I believe in people just up and performing open-heart surgery," Winegardner says.

The Florida writing teacher will watch his latest book, "The Godfather Returns," hit store shelves Nov. 16. Winegardner spent two years writing it.

If he isn't a big fan of the NaNoWriMo notion, he admits that "anyone who devotes November to National Novel Writing Month will be better readers. For which I say, 'Thank you, and on behalf of established novelists, buy our books.' "

But Christine Huth believes Baty's program can help people become better writers. Huth, 38, is a geologist and the Cleveland liaison for the 2004 NaNoWriMo campaign. She completed her first NaNoWriMo work last year. The novel, called "Light Ship," is in revision now.

"I had been a sporadic writer before," Huth says. "I've noticed that since I did this last year, the amount that I write has increased exponentially."

Huth encourages anybody who has ever wanted to write a novel to try the method.

"You might not hit 50,000 words," she says, "but it gets the engines going."

[Karen Sandstrom / San Diego Tribune]