Can You Write 50,000 Words in 30 Days?
November 6th, 2009
By Eric Brew
How would you like to be a novelist by December? No, we didn’t say a good novelist – just a novelist.
Over the last 10 years, National Novel Writing Month has inspired thousands write their own book. Bound by 30 days and a goal of 50,000 words, these writers have overcome the madness that writing typically creates. The University of Minnesota’s own NaNoWriMo group is actively seeking out this madness. The group’s president, Eric Dolski, says the experience is a personal growth of sorts – a discovery process. It’s an opportunity to forget structured essays and assigned topics and write without limits. And often, that’s exactly what must be done.
Hammering away an average of 1,667 words per day demands a great deal of discipline. There comes a point when each writer realizes that there can be no barrier between the author and the page. Thoughts must pour from head to fingers as freely as they might from your mouth after a heavy night of drinking. Unfortunately this sometimes means thoughts find their way to the page as jumbled as they were in mind. This isn’t the time for well-polished sentences and pristine word choice. In fact, if a writer stumbles into November with the mindset they are going to publish the beast they are about to create, he or she will likely fail. So why bother? If the purpose is not to produce the next innovative piece of literature, then what is it?
NaNoWriMo started as an excuse to call oneself a novelist – an impressive little something to casually say at parties: “Yeah, well, in my first book…”
Founders of NaNoWriMo wrote because they thought, “we would have an easier time getting dates than we did as non-novelists.” Professional writers would probably cringe at this statement; it’s one of the many reasons writers believe why someone should not write (among wealth, fame, and power).
The act of completing a novel is a confidence builder for participants. The event actively promotes quantity over quality – the idea being to accomplish something previously thought to be impossible. The fact that most of NaNoWriMo’s participants ultimately fail to finish their 50,000 words (only 18% succeeded in 2008) marks the event as a challenging endeavor. For those that do succeed, a great deal is owed to the support of their NaNoWriMo group.
While any individual can participate in the event worldwide, NaNoWriMo began as a group endeavor – getting together with other would-be novelists to type, eat junk food, and drink (caffeine and other mind-altering substances).
The U of M’s NaNoWriMo group organizes write-ins – gatherings of writers to simply write – throughout the month to push novelists to keep up with their word counts. The write-ins themselves can to be used as powerful motivators – the physical sound of other writers typing and progressing can be both comforting and encouraging. Stories will be exchanged. Snacks will be had. Struggles will be encountered and conquered.
Interested in becoming a novelist? Come to the next University NaNoWriMo meeting! Email Eric Dolski at dolsk002@umn.edu for details.
