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Bonne Chance!

Guest Author Jessica Rakus: NaNoWhatMo?

As we enter the beautiful month of November, I am very excited to present fellow author, Jessica Rakus, as she shares her thoughts on the cultural writing phenomenon, NaNoWriMo. I have known Jessica for many years and have had the pleasure to read her work and feel honored that she wrote this essay for BCB. Bonne Chance, and enjoy!

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2005 was a big year for me. I moved to Illinois. I met a certain awesome lady named Katie. And I participated in National Novel Writing Month for the first time.

NaNoWriMo started in 1999, so I was a bit late to it (at least in the circle of writers I would end up in – there were folks who were around in 1999! Hipsters!).  You sit down on November 1st, and if all goes well, by 11:59 on November 30th, you write 50,000 words. The goal isn’t to write something good. The goal is simply to finish. It’s not about writing the Great American Novel. It’s about writing a novel. Getting it done. Finishing.

NaNoWriMo was perfect for me, because I am terrible at finishing. I have…let’s just say several unfinished novels kicking around. And in 2005, when I sat down and tried to get 50,000 words on paper (or Word document), I hit around 35,000 word. I wasn’t a winner. But it was still more words than I’d ever put into a project before. And that’s the point, really. Get the words down. You can fix them later. Just write. Because you can’t publish a novel if you don’t finish the thing.

In 2006, I won NaNoWriMo for the first time. Did that mean I got a publishing contract, or even that I’d written something good? Nope! It was still a mediocre novel (my writers’ group would later completely tear it apart). But I got the words down. I got them out. The novel might have potential; I’d figure that out down the road. One of the guiding principles of NaNoWriMo is that you don’t go back and read what you’ve written while NaNo is still ongoing. In fact, once you’ve finished, it’s generally recommended that you put your piece away for a couple months. Get that distance. Then get ready to edit.

My “best” novel happened in 2008. It’s the only thing I’ve written that I think will actually see the light of day. As of right now, this moment, it sits at just over 58,000 words, and is on its fifth draft. That’s a lot of editing. Because when you spit out a novel in a month, it needs a bit of work.

After ten tries at NaNoWriMo, I’ve hit the 50,000 word mark about half the time. Thing come up, life gets in the way. There are certainly ways to improve your chances. If I could give only one piece of advice, it would be to participate in write-ins. Not just because it will give you a chance to work on your piece in a time and place dedicated to getting words on paper. But for me, it helped me find my writing community. 

Even when I don’t hit that mythical 50,000 words, I always come out of NaNoWriMo feeling like I accomplished something. It’s just a push to get me going. It kick starts my writing, even when I haven’t written anything since the previous November. It reminds me of how good it feels to get those words out. It makes me want to write more. I also get a weird thrill whenever I’m working on something in a month that isn’t November, and that piece hits 50,000 words. Mission accomplished.

And I think that’s the point, more than anything. The point is to write. Once November ends, I always feel like writing more. Usually not on the piece I’ve been working on in November, but I have a lot of works in progress, so any time spent writing is a plus. So if you’re looking for a kick in the pants to get you motivated, check out NaNoWriMo this November, or join Camp NaNo, which has a bit more of a laid back feel – you can set any writing goal you want, from 1 word to 1 million, in April or July. Or if you’ve got a finished piece that needs some cleaning up, head over to NaNoEdMo (National Novel Editing Month – the goal is 50 hours of editing work) in March. Whatever you do, just get to work.