Words Per Day
According to Chris Baty, the creator of NaNoWriMo, “The biggest thing separating people from their artistic ambitions is lack of a deadline.” That’s why the plan to write a novel in a month works so well. The event creates a deadline. To reach the deadline and the goal of a 50,000 word novel, you have set the pragmatic goal of 1667 words per day.
This is my second year signing up for NaNoWriMo and the power of the deadline is what brought me back. In early October, NaNoWriMo popped into my head as the perfect solution to help me through a considerable layer of procrastination. I needed to get started on a book-length project I had agreed to work on. My friend Julia had done a great deal of research on modern women inventors and I had agreed to worked the material into a cohesive package. It occurred to me that I could create the book she was looking for if I sat down and organized the material at a rate of 1667 words per day–the daily rate when one signs up for NaNoWriMo.
I’m working outside the box of NaNo this year because I’m not writing a novel; I’m working on a non-fiction piece. The contest is so personal that it allows such freedom. Nobody is watching me to say I’m breaking the rules because the entire motivation for this event is intrinsic. Just because I signed up, I feel a compelling urge to write at least 1667 words every day. Though I know people who have not signed up but are working as if they had, it took the formal step of logging on to the NaNoWriMo site to call this urge forth in me.
Many successful writers operate under the principle that they simply have get their bottom in the chair each day and write. Some writers set a goal of X number of pages. During the month of November, there are 125,000 writers who set a goal of 1667 words per day.
The goal is not magical; it’s practical. But the experience of typing those 1667 words day after day is definitely awesome! Having a deadline really works!
Today is the first day of National Novel Writing Month: NaNoWriMo for short. This is my second year of signing up for this event which boasts 125,000 participant writers from around the world. In my little corner of the world, I’ve located 6 other WriMos, and we are meeting at local Starbucks this afternoon for a Write-In as well as weekly for the rest of the month.
The purpose of the event is to complete 50,000 words of a “shitty first draft.” This quote is directly from Anne Lamott’s book Bird by Bird and is particularly fitting to the contest’s intention. Chris Baty, who initiated the event in 1999 with 26 friends, is the first to say that the intention is not to write beautiful, lyrical, quotable prose. The goal is simply to give one’s imagination full rein until there are 50,000 words on the page.
I have to admit last year’s NaNoWriMo was a thrilling exercise in freedom for me. I wrote the worst mystery novel ever, but I discovered so many facets of my imagination in the process and so much about my ability to do concentrated work in a myriad of settings and under all kinds of conditions. WOW!
Of course, I signed up again. I leaped from bed this morning, not early but nevertheless excited to start work on my new book. I filled my new NaNoWriMo mug with coffee (unused until this day), donned my blue chiffon porpoise-print writing jacket, opened a word doc, and typed the title of my book: The Right Sisters.
I’m off and running with 700 words! I’ll meet with my fellow WriMos this afternoon at Starbucks where we will down caffeine and write for 2 or more hours.
Are any of you, dear readers, participating? Please speak up! In the mean time, I’ll post periodic NaNoWriMo updates along with more thoughts on point of view over the next few weeks.
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