Another year, another NaNoWriMo

November is nearly here and that can only mean one thing.

NaNoWriMo 2011 is charging towards you.

It probably has its head down and is making bull noises while you dance about trying to work out which way its going to go before finally making a decision and diving out of the way at the last minute only to find you’ve got it wrong again.

GORE! GORE! GORE!

You won’t be able to breathe for some time. You’ll feel dizzy. You’ll wish you’d never even tried to stand up to it.

And that’s what NaNoWriMo is.

Am I being over dramatic? No, I am not.

Alright, yes I am.

A bit.

Alright a lot. Honestly, can’t I have a little artistic license? It’s my blog you know.

EH?

NaNoWriMo, for those of you who don’t know, is the challenge to write a 50,000 word novel in just 30 days during November. Many people do it and they take part for many reasons that I won’t try and list, but I’ll tell you mine.

I want a book at the end of it.

I did my first NaNo last year and wrote  a genius work of fiction called Monkeygeddon. There’s a sample chapter here, if you’re interested. I had great fun writing it although it was a pain in the arse at times..

Get to the point

But I’ve wrote about all that sort of thing before, so what’s my point this time? Well, I wanted to offer a word of warning to those of you who might be thinking of giving NaNoWriMo a go for the first time this year.

NaNo is very exciting for those taking part. There will be well over 200,000 participants and the level of camaraderie you’ll find in the regional groups, Facebook groups and on Twitter will overwhelm you.

However, despite the figures, not everyone is going to get involved. Most of them will indulge us while we gush and pat ourselves on the back and you’ll get plenty of support from plenty of non participants.

But…

There’s always a but. And this but is to warn you about the people who make the snide comments. As if trying to write 50,000 words in 30 days wasn’t hard enough, you’re going to have to put up with a lot of people who will wish you’d all just give up.

They don’t want to hear about how many words you may or may not have written that day. They won’t care that you’re struggling. They won’t want to hear about your writing hat or your case of Percy Pigs. Some of them will take to their blogs to write hundreds of words about how you’re all wasting your time. Some will tell you that NaNoWriMo is responsible for the influx of awful books that suddenly appear in the shops. They’ll tell you that you’re the reason people hate self-published books and besides, all the good books have already been written.

These people are cocks.

So what can you do to fight back? Easy.

1. Ignore them. You will never convince them that what you are doing is worth anything any more than they’ll convince you to stop.
2. Don’t be a NaNo bore. You’ll want to talk about what you’re doing and you have every right to do so, but try to limit the bulk of these conversations to people who care. There’s loads of us out there so why rile up the masses when they don’t give a shit?
3. Remember, your 50,000 words are not a finished product. One of the biggest complaints from people in the business is that they do get sent a lot of first Drafts on spec. The bad news is, you haven’t got a first draft, you’ve got Draft Zero. It’s going to take quite some work to polish it up to a level where its worth sending to an agent or publisher.
4. Remember the NaNoWriMo mantra, editing is for December. That means, spend November writing your novel rather than worrying about fixing it. But more importantly it means; when you’ve finished, EDIT IT!

So, there you have it. I hope I’ve not put any of you off. I expect you to spend the rest of October plotting your story. But don’t panic if you only have half an idea, you can still push on through. NaNo is a great experience and if you get something, anything, out of it then it’ll all be worthwhile.

Have fun and if you need some support, come and find the rest of us. We’re out there, just follow the sounds of anguish.

PS

If you’re interested, my novel this year will be called, Deathalopod. It’s going to be the mayhem filled story of a small Cornish surfing village that finds itself under siege by a school of angry killer squid.

I know    I’m especially looking forward to the movie. As for Monkeygeddon, the editing continues. Yes it’s been a year, but think how good it’ll be when I’ve finished.

Tagged as: draft zero, first draft, hat, nanowrimo, percy pig, plan, planning, plotting