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!
Last year when I did NaNoWriMo, I experimented with writing in public places. I didn’t think I would do well writing away from the privacy and comforts of home, but I was wrong.
I started off with baby steps. First, I took my laptop to the public library and hid away in a little carrel at the back of the stacks. A few days later, I decided to try writing at Starbucks. I was pleasantly surprised at how easily I disappeared into the writing and for the most part was undisturbed by the comings and goings in the shop. The hardest part was when I needed to use the facilities and couldn’t figure out if I should take my laptop with me or ask a nearby coffee drinker to watch it for me.
In the third week of NaNoWriMo, I decided to try something suggested by veteran WriMos: The Write-In. This is when a group of writers carrying laptops gather in a public place–generally a coffee shop but there are other possibilities. For a set amount of time, the writers sip caffeinated drinks and clack away on their novels. Two of my WriMo buddies agreed to meet for a Write-In last November, and by the end of the evening we were hooked.
This year, I jumped at the chance to regularly join 6 other WriMos for weekly Write-Ins. Here we are at the kick off event.
And here is a list of the wonders of write-ins:
- Never underestimate the power of camaraderie in any foolish activity, such as writing a 50,000 word novel in a month. It’s a known fact that kids get into more mischief when there is more than one. Well, the same can be said for writers except that mischief is a good thing when it comes to written expression.
- When you get blocked regarding a word or the name of an actor, movie, song, car part, kitchen utensil or some other triviality that figures into the scene you are currently writing, you can ask your cohorts, and they–not being invested in your story– immediately provide the term that is alluding you.
- I like to ask all the writers for one word at the start of a Write-In. I jot these words in my notebook and then aim to get each one into the story somewhere. These words stretch my thinking in directions I would never have otherwise taken. For example, here’s a list of words I was given at the Write-In pictured above: sizzle, Timbuktu, assassin, mimic, and fiddle.
- When you are in a public place, you often hear snatches of dialog that wiggle their way into your scene. The same can be said for aromas, textures, tastes, and other sensory data.
- If you are even a tiny bit competitive, the fact that your neighbor has reached the requisite word count in under 2 hours will spur you on to reach the goal, and more likely motivate you to get a few words more than the eager beaver sitting across from you.
- The last push to get one more sentence, phrase, or word before departure time sometimes holds the seeds of much better stuff to come.
- And when you are with friends, you never have to worry about leaving to use the facilities because you can trust your friends to watch your laptop while you are gone and who cares if someones steals the last line you wrote. It won’t look the same in their novel as it does in yours anyway.
So Write-on and Write-in.
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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