NaNoWriMo For Newbies

Woohoo! NaNoWriMo is coming! Hey, wait! What is this NaNoWriMo stuff? Yes, it sounds like an exotic, extinct animal. NaNoWriMo is a short name for National Novel Writer's Month.

What is NaNoWriMo?

NaNoWriMo is an international event, it doesn't matter where you are from or where you live. It is an equal opportunity event, and if you win, you can ALWAYS claim your prize. There are no limits on the number of winners; thus, discipline and free time are all you need to be a winner. The prizes are not monetary. There are good discounts on software and tools for writers from participating sponsors. The first year I participated, I won and with the price, I acquired a Scrivener license. Scrivener is one of my favorite writing tools.

To take part, you commit to writing (part of) a novel of any genre, even a memoir. As long as it is new work, it is fine. NaNoWriMo is a yearly FREE contest that takes place between November 1st and November 30th. Are you ready for the "Write or Die" event of the year?

What do I need to do to participate?

Participation is free. You only need to register yourself at NaNoWriMo.org and fill out a short description of your novel and its title. If you feel fancy, you may even add your book cover! Sure, it sounds strange when you haven't even started. But I assure you, doing the book cover and seeing it every day is motivational!

You will need a computer for basic text editing, even a $50 Raspberry Pi would do! You can use any editor. Stick to plain text; don't lose time formatting; it is time-consuming and pointless. You will also need a basic Internet connection to report your word count progress every day.

Your dashboard on their site is very useful to give you an insight into your progress. Look at it every day. By the way, it is better if you use a text editor that counts words. Every day, before starting, record how many words you have. At the end of the day, you can calculate how many extra words you added toward the goal. If not, then use any online site that can count words, but you will have to cut & paste to get your word count.

Who wins NaNoWriMo?

You may not be asking yourself, What makes you a winner? To win NaNoWriMo all you need to do is write at least 50,000 words in a month's time. That is roughly an average of 2500 words per day.

It is a challenge because it is not easy! Even if you have experience, writing 2500 new words per day, seven days a week, for 30 days is a challenge. Even if you entered prepared with a story outline, there will be days you feel like a sail ship in the Sargasso Sea! Writer's block; they call it, and it is bound to happen, so prepare yourself!

Tackling NaNoWriMo

As I said, 50,000 words in 30 days is the main rule. That means 2,500 words per day, assuming you write 7 days a week for a whole month. Eh! Who has time for that? Exactly! Even if you do, it is no easy feat! Commitments like family, work, and even life itself will pound at you without mercy. Whether they are willing or not, they will all conspire to deviate from your goal. So, get your own "Do Not Disturb" sign and a quiet place. No matter how much you plan, there will always be a day (or days!) where you may not be able to write. As the month progresses, you get tired or stressed about the creative process.

So, how do you do it? Most people try to write 2,500 words per day. But when days without output accumulate, the stress heightens. Thus, some people do a "Reverse NaNoWriMo" where they start with a heavier load on day 1. Then the word count decreases as the month progresses. There are several variations of the Reverse NaNoWriMo.

Now, things are not looking that easy anymore, huh? Time for another important item...

Can I use Artificial Intelligence?

What? You want to become an author, or at least try to become one, but you have no intention to learn and do the work. Writing is a skill, writing is an art. Sure, AI can do a lot of things, but it has trained on other people's work.

Imagine & Create with your own brain

My point is that a true author has a mind, the creativity and the talent to come up with his/her own stuff! Using AI is like pretending to be an author. So why cheat? Do you want to come out of the NaNoWriMo experience with honor? Then do your stuff—create, imagine. If you can't do those things, then you better do something else. Sorry, it may sound harsh, but these days there are a lot of people putting their names as the authors of things written by AI.

And remember, the honor system is at the core of the spirit of NaNoWriMo. There is no point in saying you "won" if you cheated everybody else.

Will my novel be ready after that?

No. Foremost, 50,000 words isn't a novel, you will need to write more than that. Most important, the result of your NaNoWriMo output is nothing but a first draft! It is ready for one thing only: revision. In most cases, as an aspiring author, you will go through several draft revisions. This is very important because you only have ONE opportunity to make a first impression! Readers will not finish reading your work if you deliver half-baked work. And believe me, if that happens, you will never get a chance to pitch again for another published work. So, do it and do it well!

Will that make me an author?

Short answer: No. Long answer: the path to becoming an author is long and arduous. And remember, to be a good writer, you first need to be a good reader! Read a lot of books in different genres. Analyze them as you read them, scene by scene and chapter by chapter.

The path to become a published author is long and arduous

Now, to be able to analyze a written work, you will need some schooling of some kind. It could be a traditional creative writing program (University, Coursera, etc.). A viable alternative is to read a lot of the thousands of articles and videos on blogs and YouTube. These cover everything that you will need to know, including, but not limited to:

• Character development
• Setting & Description
• Plot development
• Style

If you don't do anything of the above and join Wattpad, everything will look fine. But once you have done your homework, you will notice that a lot of the stories on Wattpad are that: stories. Many lack serious development on one or more of the bullets above. Once you develop a critical mind as a reader, you are better trained to become a writer.

Another thing you will find on Wattpad is a lot of stories written in the first person ("I walked to the counter and..."). Why? Because that is the easiest way to narrate. It has its limitations, too. With some practice, you will develop skills from third-person Point of View. If you have done your share of reading modern novels, you will notice it is the most common in most genres.

Writing dialog has its own rules

Last but not least, when you read, pay close attention to how dialog works. And, if you are bilingual or polyglot like me, you will see two currents of dialog formatting. In the English-speaking world, dialog appears between quotes. In the Spanish-speaking world, the long dash (M-dash) introduces dialog.

Have I done NaNoWriMo?

Well yes! I did it back in 2016, and I "won" when I wrote about 52,000 words in a month. It was a grueling experience. In my country, November is a special month with lots of national holidays. That means (for us) a lot of interruptions, trips to the countryside, and other activities. With my winning prize (a software discount), I bought a licensed version of Scrivener. I used a trial version of Scrivener during NaNoWriMo. They have a special version valid for the entire month of November!

It was great! And I was glad I did it! I jumped at it with only a vague idea of what story I wanted to write, and I improvised since day 1. That means I did not outline anything. I didn't finish the story, in fact, I think it was about halfway through all the events I planned.

But you know what I learned after doing my first NaNoWriMo (and winning it!)? I knew very little about writing! I won't say "nothing" because I read a lot and knew enough about writing dialog (but not all!).

After that NaNoWriMo I devoured every blog and video blog about creative writing. The more I did, the more I liked it and the more I learned. After that, I also enrolled in a creative writing specialization. Later, I enrolled in another writing course.

You have to be realistic about what you get when you cross the NaNoWriMo finish line. It is not a novel, it is a first draft! And most likely, it will need a lot (and I mean a lot!) of revision to become something. And who knows, it could even need a full rewrite!

Conclusion & Take Away

NaNoWriMo is fun, especially for newbies, and it is a great experience. But you should have realistic expectations of the resulting draft. It requires a fair share of discipline and plenty of time for tinkering and writing! I used to go to bed thinking about my characters and what should happen next in the plot. At some point, your fictional characters take on a life of their own, and you may end up caring about them!

Make sure you have the right set of tools to help you navigate the waters of this journey!