Write 50,000 words by the end of November. You have 28 days left.
An international creative writing project, National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) challenges people to write a 50,000-word novel over the 30-day course of November. Anyone can participate and track their progress by signing up at nanowrimo.org.
“It really is a way to push yourself to let your creative brains loose and just see what you can do,” English teacher Elise Marks said. “It sounds so intimidating, but it’s very liberating once you get rolling.”
The concept of NaNoWriMo originated in July 1999 with Bay Area native Chris Baty and 20 others wanting to binge write for the pure sake of having fun. Since then, the challenge has spread exponentially. Last year, 310,095 participants won the challenge, indicating they had successfully written 50,000 words by the Nov. 30 deadline. To win, writers must average 1,667 words per day.
At the end of the month, people have a draft of a novel they can choose to edit and eventually try to publish. There are no official prizes for winners, but sponsors offer various participant and winner goodies.
“They have all this adorable swag you can buy, like winner T-shirts,” Marks said. “I bought a set of badges, literally like Girl Scout badges.”
Marks has won three times and this will be her sixth year participating in the challenge. She enjoys writing historical fiction and plans to use NaNoWriMo unconventionally by working on three unfinished pieces.
English teacher Mercedes Foster first participated in the challenge two years ago. A friend of hers had come to her house and seen a NaNoWriMo poster, then convinced her to try the challenge.
“She literally opened up by bookcase and pulled out this letter that some random guy had written to my grandmother during World War II, and she was like ‘What’s the story of this?’” Foster said. “I was like ‘I don’t know, some love letter to my grandmother.’ Then we looked him up online and turns out he died a month later at sea. And she’s like, ‘There’s your book.’
“And so then I started writing that, totally making up this history about my grandmother that doesn’t exist and what would have happened if he didn’t die, or what would have happened if she was in love with him. And it wasn’t a romance novel at all, it was more like a exploration of tragedy and World War II. And I wrote 35,000 words in the month.”
Foster said a third of the way through, her novel began veering from her initial idea. She plans to go from there as a starting point for this year’s challenge.
“Maybe they’re some paragraphs here and there that I’m really proud of, but overall you just kind of vomit the words and you just go,” Foster said. “National Novel Writing Month is just about getting it out of you, then dealing with it later.”
Throughout the month, NaNoWriMo staff send and post pep talks from writers to motivate participants to continue. They also organize meetups for writers at local libraries, coffee shops and restaurants.
“It’s really nice because writing can kind of be a lonely thing to do and it becomes this collective effort,” Marks said.
Foster has been to a meetup with attendees ranging from amateur teenage novelists to well-acclaimed published authors.
“It’s an interesting community of people that mean a lot to me, that for the most part, I have never had a personal conversation with,” Foster said. “It’s weird, but it’s neat to know that they care.”
Junior Ryan Howzell, who is currently in creative writing, plans to take on the challenge. She said although she is more of a short story writer, she is excited to explore extended stories.
“In the craziness of school and everything, it’d be something that you can focus on and have on the side, so you’re not placing all your self worth in school or sports,” Howzell said. “It’s just a creative outlet to access a different part of yourself and get a cool product out of it. I think it’d be cool if a lot of people did it.”
Howzell plans to write a realistic fiction novel based on evolving relationships. She hopes to be more free with her writing by the end of the experience.
“I’m kind of a perfectionist when it comes to writing, so it always moves really slowly,” Howzell said. “Instead of ‘I have to get this perfect before I move on,’ more kind of like throwing all my ideas on paper, then going back to fine tune it.”
Senior Robbie Diaz started the challenge last year but fell short. He had begun a fantasy story set in an alternate universe about the main character discovering his past life. This year, he plans to write a villain or anti-villain narrative.
“Last year I didn’t totally have an idea of where I wanted my story to go, whereas this year I think I’m really motivated to see where I can take this,” Diaz said. “I do have the plays this November, so I’ll definitely be busy and won’t have time to write every day. I’ll just try and budget my time as best as I can.”
If people hit writers’ block, Marks has a number of tips.
“If you don’t have something to say, just start typing like ‘avocado, avocado, avocado’ until something just comes to you,” Marks said.
Marks also recommends a site called WriteOrDie.com.
“It’s this little online program, and you set it to more or less fierce, but you have to keep your fingers moving on the keyboard at a certain speed and if you don’t, first it starts doing annoying things like beeping or something like that,” Marks said. “But after a while it starts erasing what you wrote, so it’s literally like write or die.”
“I’m really excited, like every fall,” Marks said. “I want six of my words to be ‘the end, the end, the end.’”