NaNoWriMo -- DON'T Write a Book in a Month

Yup, you heard me.

Because books are like these:

Don't own this photo.

And these:



I actually do own this. So HA, photo copyright lawsuits!



Unless you are writing for the MG audience or you write novellas, your book will NOT end up in the 50,000 word range that is National Novel Writing Month's goal. They will be like the above books: bigger, thicker, and longer (...).

For me, at least, I like doing all the drafting and creative work in one go. Usually, this means I have +100K novels, but I do edit the life out of them in the next phase (my most prized shortening is 136K to 85Kish).

For most of us, our novels will not end up in the 50K range. If you do decide to get a book done in November, I bet (or suggest) you:

• are a writer that loves to flesh out the skeleton of a draft; you like adding more than deleting
• you are doing NaNoWriMo for fun, or as an exercise/study in writing (This would have saved me the wreck of a MS that was my first MS. And my second, to think of it. Sigh....)
• your genre/category permits you to have a shorter word count

Because if you don't like fleshing out the bones, then your post-NaNo experience will be a nightmare. Don't try squeezing in a healthy 80K novel into 50K words by cutting subplots or adding placeholders ("Main character kills bad guy"). If you do enjoy fleshing out your novel, keep going with NaNo's goal. However, if you are like me and want a relaxing and mindless editing job (relatively speaking), don't squeeze your book. It's book suicide.

Squeezing a manuscript means twice the work: draft twice as much, labor twice as hard -- not pretty.

But I love NaNoWriMo. Even though I'm against its goal for a full novel, I sure as heck need a push to write 50K. Honestly, it's not really "rushing" to write 1,667 words a day. Writing a book in that word count is rushing. I can do 1,667 words, but I need a push. NaNo is that push.

I am recommending NaNo to everyone here. Start right (or write, hehe) now; it doesn't matter if you are late to the game; just get 1,667 words a day. Do it even if you are not drafting; up the word count to 2,500 and edit that much of your novel each day. Heck, do a NaNo in December.

Just do it. That's all NaNo is about, and in November, NaNo gets you with one of the best communities on the Internet. November is a great month for writers.

But don't try suffocating your novel if that's not for you. Try to shoot for 50K this month, not to finish the whole book.

Heck, even Water for Elephants (with a newish movie starring Robert Pattison) was a NaNo novel -- and its published word count was 100,483 words. That's double the NaNo goal.

Don't kill your works of art and future NYT best sellers in the awesomeness that is NaNoWriMo.
(And it truly is awesome. So do it!)

Have fun NaNoing, and find me there as well, under SC_Author :)

Do you have any advice for NaNoers?

Birthday Contest WINNERS!

Ok, first off, the winners. More bloggy info is below, so don't skip over it :)

The winners are:

1. Kendra Conine
2. Stephanie Adele
3. Kela McClelland
4. Caterina Torres

Yay! Thanks guys! Email me (SC_Author@yahoo.com) what prizes you would like :)

Ok, secondly, a HUGE thank you.

Thanks so much for all the amazing comments and stories in the comments of the post! I loved each and every one of them, and I know I'll be going back to the post to just reread them once in a while. I love personal stories :) You guys are AMAZING. The reason I didn't reply to your comments like I usually do is because I'm a technology failure. I so stupidly thought that if I comment, it would interfere with the Rafflecopter contest thingy and put ME in the drawing. But, that only happens if you enter. Who knew.

ANYWAY, thank you so much guys! Your compassion and support are truly unrivaled.

Yesterday was a fun day, and my legs are aching because I ran a lot. Why? My sister threw me a surprise (but I already knew) paint ball birthday party! It was TONS of fun. I only got hit five times out of seven games! (Which is pretty good for me. My cousins went after me so I got out. The two times I didn't was when we were on the same team :) ) I actually got two people out as well!! And these were like the legit paintballers, who come dressed up like a tree and stuff, so it was pretty awesome. One of those hits might have been my sister's -- we were shooting at the same time. But it was fun :) Personal rant over.

WIP progress report

I am writing it in longhand and I am LOVING the voice! Also, I love feeling the pages I've written :) I'm getting about 5-8 pages a day, so around 1,250-2,000 words a day. I'm enjoying it a ton :) Thanks for all your help and support!

How are your WIPs and MSs going?