The End of a Decade of Nanowrimo
by syaffolee
Congratulations to everyone who managed to plow through this year’s Nanowrimo! Whether you’ve crossed the 50k benchmark or only managed to write a couple hundred words, you did awesome. While writing an entire novel within a month is the goal–and the primary point of having Nanowrimo in the first place–that’s not exactly its philosophical purpose. I admit, I’m old school when it comes to this writing contest. I personally adhere strictly to the rules as they were originally intended. But in truth, doing Nanowrimo means ending procrastination and starting to write regularly. It’s about really starting something and not just mouthing the words, “I’ll do it someday.”
This is my tenth “win” for Nanowrimo. For all the years that I’ve participated in this, I’ve never lost. But it doesn’t get old. Every year, I’ve challenged myself to do something different, to make the whole thing more exciting and nail-biting. Maybe it’s a change in genres or a change in point-of-view. This year, my entire novel (or what is there so far*) has consisted of dares even though I’ve made a general outline ahead of time.
I will say that it kind of got hairy there a couple of times on the last day. I tried to fit in some writing during my lunch break at lab and my concentration was broken by a loud, chatty prof and a loud, whiny undergrad. And in the last hour at the write-in, the people at the bagel shop decided to play annoying music really, really loudly. Even my earphones could not drown out the noise. But despite it all, I wrote.
As for next year? Well, of course I’m going to do it all again. But next time, I’m going to hand write everything. And I will document my daily progress with photos and/or scans.
*The novel itself is currently at 90,002 words. It is not finished. That’s why I’m still writing the rest of the week. I’ll post another update once I actually finish this thing.
Don't Shake the Flask 
90,000 words sounds like kind of a lot.
Yeah, but most novels, especially the ones you find in the bookstore nowadays, are around 100,000 to 150,000 words.
Actually, many publishers will hesitate if presented with a novel of more than 120,000 words fro an unknown writer. Until, you get established, it is best to keep around that 90,000 or 100,000 mark. Going farther into that range means that you had better be known or the novel had better be amazing.
Congratulations on 90k! I’ve also thought of different ways to shake up NaNo because after doing it for so long, there has to be a way. Handwriting it so I can’t rely on my typing speed? Writing in French? There must be something.