I had a couple of interesting discussions to say the least with a couple of friends and I decided to share my thoughts on NaNoWriMo. Generally, they were quite pissed off at me at the end. Let me explain…

What is it?

First, if you don’t know what it is, NaNoWriMo is basically this ritual during the month of November where writers take a pledge to write and finish an entire novel. Yeah, one month, one novel. It couldn’t be better than as if you were ordering food from your favorite restaurant (what? I’m a bit hungry at the moment, don’t mind the metaphor).

So, my friends asked me if I was going to “take the pledge” this time seeing as I’m already working on my second book and stuff, and they were next to shocked when I told them “I hate it.”

Look, I get it, the whole idea and concept behind this is to motivate writers to simply write and get them practicing and whatever. But the fact of the matter is, a good novel cannot be written in one month! Holy shit, if you could do that why not write a book every single month as opposed to focusing on only one? And don’t start with the “that’s not the point” bull…

I write about 1.5K words a day (and on a good day I write about 3K), so in theory I should be able to do this quite easily. But my problem with this is, that writers who plan on participating often plan the book ahead. They plot it out extremely well and then it’s simply a matter of finishing a draft. Good? Yeah I guess. So if you can plot a book so well as to finish it in one month, why are you not doing it as a standard practice?

Why I hate it?

I think it’s really demeaning for other writers when they hear about NaNoWriMo. Shouldn’t every month be considered a month of writing? It seriously belittles the amount of research, hard work, re-write and editing that authors do when it comes to writing. It is just not as simple as they make it sound to be. Finishing a novel in one month? Seriously? And the excuses that you get “I would write a book every month if I had the time” – Ah! They lose simply by pleading to that excuse.

In the end, I’m really not against NaNoWriMo or anyone who participates in it, in fact power to them for actually getting a draft completed in such a short time but I just don’t see myself putting that much pressure on myself (books… you see are really evil). I just have a problem with the message that they portray to the rest of the world.

These are totally my own thoughts on NaNoWriMo, and if you disagree with me, then let me know. Leave a comment, or tweet me. Let’s talk about it.

Until next time,
Write on.