NaNoWriMo: Four Reasons You Should Participate

NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month and every year in November hundreds of thousands of people all over the world pledge to write a book in thirty days. Typically, the goal for the month is 50,000 words which is 1,667 words a day, roughly 3 pages every single day of November. This has probably made you wonder why anyone in their right mind would want to participate in something so challenging. The answer is because NaNo is about learning where your strengths and weaknesses lie as a writer. Here's some reasons why you should give NaNoWriMo a shot:

1. You’ll never find a better opportunity to see how you perform under pressure than during NaNo.

I’ve participated in NaNo for several years now and every year I walk away with a better idea of what does and doesn’t work for me as a writer. Every writer has a different routine and preferred writing application. They write at different times of the day and spend different amounts of time writing. I know some writers who can sit for several hours, a few times a week, and crack out a huge chunk of their manuscript. Others can only focus for an hour or two a day so they write every day instead. So any advice they give you may or may not work for you. NaNo will help you figure out for yourself what works, and even more importantly, what doesn’t.

I "lost" my first three NaNos; as in, I didn’t reach my word goal of 50,000 words by the end of November. I was operating under the assumption that the writing routine I used in college would work for NaNo (manic laughter emanates from the background). I was WRONG, horribly, terribly, naively wrong. I’d try some ideas, fail, note what obviously didn’t work, and come up with a new game plan for the next year. Rinse and repeat until I found something that worked. Now I’m taking the things that worked and I’m using them to write my debut novel.

2. If you already know that your writing routine works but you keep facing the dreaded writer's block, you should give NaNo a try.

For those thirty days of November, every second is precious. There’s barely time to eat or sleep, let alone doubt every word choice or piece of prose. NaNo forces you to GET. IT. DONE. No second guessing yourself, no going back to edit (which is one of the leading causes of writer's block). My favorite writing quote of all time comes from Shannon Hale. She says, “I’m writing a first draft and reminding myself that I’m simply shoveling sand into a box so that later I can build castles.” I am constantly reminding myself of this as I write. I used to always think so hard about what I was going to put on the page and if it was any good, that I never actually put anything on the page. I’d get stuck in self doubt, my perfectionism would get in the way, and 8,000 words into NaNo and I’d just give up.

This past NaNo, 2022, I wrote with this quote constantly playing through my mind. What I was writing didn’t need to be perfect, it just needed to exist. And something magical happened. I “won” NaNo for the first time. Not only did I manage to slap together enough words to reach my 50,000 word goal a week and a half early, I also finished with an additional 10k proverbial cherry on top. “Winning” NaNo gave me the confidence boost I needed to finally dedicate myself to working towards publication. Which has led us to this point, with you reading this blog post that I spent several hours beating my head against a keyboard to write as I try to convince you to try NaNo this year.

3. You have to learn to move past failure.

Writing is HARD. You pour your heart and soul onto the page, spend hours writing, hours editing, thousands of dollars on more editing. Only for you to stop one day and doubt everything you’ve done so far. (Curse you, imposter syndrome! *shakes fist at nothing like a crazy person*) People are going to read your manuscript and tell you it’s awful, not their cup of tea, that it could’ve been much better, that you’re wasting your time. Those words will hurt. But if you give up and never finish the book, then those jerks were ultimately right.

You won’t “win” every NaNo, especially your first few, and that’s okay. Because “losing” at NaNo will help you learn to accept failure and move on. Every loss is a victory if you pull something good from it. Let’s say you only made it halfway to your goal, whatever it may be. Yeah, it sucks that you didn’t “win” but what you can focus on is why you didn’t win. What got in the way? Time? Perfectionism? Imposter syndrome? Poor planning? Life? All and any answer is a valid reason because you can learn from it. Make your failure a weapon for the future. Fail so much you become a beast of a writer, armed with hundreds of failure-weapons. The most unstoppable force of nature the world has ever seen! (You get the picture.)

4. But it’s okay if NaNo isn’t your thing.

I know several people who tried NaNo once or twice and came to the decision that it just wasn’t for them. They had busy lives, full-time jobs, children and all the responsibilities that come with them. NaNo is a BIG commitment. I wasn’t being dramatic about the no time for eating or sleeping thing earlier. NaNo will consume your life in November and if you use October to prep, it’ll consume that too. NaNo is about learning, and if you learn from NaNo that it just isn’t the right fit for you, then you’ve still won.

So, we’ve talked about what NaNoWriMo is, what you will learn and gain from it, and that it’s okay if you say no to it after all. I hope reading this has convinced you to give NaNoWriMo a shot. No matter how things turn out, I know you’ll learn something from the experience.

Good luck fellow writer,

-G.E. McKnight