{"id":3634,"date":"2013-11-06T05:25:10","date_gmt":"2013-11-06T09:25:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.languagetrainers.com\/blog\/?p=3634"},"modified":"2013-11-21T09:03:41","modified_gmt":"2013-11-21T13:03:41","slug":"nanowrimo-powering-through-writers-block","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.languagetrainers.com\/blog\/nanowrimo-powering-through-writers-block\/","title":{"rendered":"NaNoWriMo: Powering Through Writer’s Block"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Image\"<\/a>Every year when November comes round, I start off with the highest hopes of being able to write a novel\u2014a full 50,000 words, complete with rich, complex characters and intriguing story arc\u2014in 30 days.\u00a0 I resolve to wake up early and write fiction for a full hour, maybe two, before my literary inspiration fizzles away in the face of the daily grind.\u00a0 This lasts on average three days and 4,000 words before I get distracted, discouraged, or caught up in other projects.\u00a0 There are many possible reasons for this: maybe I\u2019m not cut out to be a fiction writer.\u00a0 Maybe I need a wealthy patron.\u00a0 Or maybe I should stop trying to write a different version of the same dead-end novel every year.\u00a0 However, I always look back on these Novembers\u2014NaNoWriMo, as it\u2019s known amongst the creative writing circles, for \u201cNational Novel Writing Month\u201d\u2014as valuable exercises in forcing myself to write.<\/p>\n

NaNoWriMo was launched in 2001 as an experiment by freelance writer Chris Baty from San Francisco.\u00a0 Initially, 140 participants signed up for the challenge of starting and finishing a novel in one month, and since then NaNoWriMo has mushroomed into a worldwide phenomenon in which hundreds of thousands of authors attempt to hit the 50,000 word mark.\u00a0 Writers get free reign in terms of genre, voice, and writing style\u2014the only rules are that the novel has to be a new, original work started on the 1st<\/sup> of November, and it cannot be coauthored.\u00a0 While 50,000 words does not make for a very long novel in light of the standard 300-400 pages that defines most contemporary novels, (although The Hitchhiker\u2019s Guide To the Galaxy <\/i>and The Great Gatsby <\/i>both contain not much more than 50,000 words,) a novel is officially discriminated from the shorter novella once it reaches 40,000 words.\u00a0 Your 50,000 words (averaging at a 1,667 words per day\u2014a less daunting goal,) can be a complete novel, or it can be the beginning of a larger work that you continue to write after November has ended.<\/p>\n

\"Image<\/a>While this may seem like an extreme and inorganic way of writing, it\u2019s proven to help many writers overcome bad habits of procrastination, over-editing, and self-consciousness.\u00a0 By focusing on quantity of writing rather than initial quality, NaNoWriMo provides a means of getting past the initial discouragement and loss of momentum many writers undergo when reading their early work.\u00a0 It\u2019s all too easy to take your lackluster first draft and compare it abysmally to the prose of your favorite writer, forgetting that that writer has spent years honing and reshaping their words until they arrived at the finished product.\u00a0 As it is, somebody who\u2019s written a hundred pages of mediocre writing is more successful than somebody who hasn\u2019t written anything because they were too worried about whether it would be good or not; mediocre writing can be improved, but somebody who won\u2019t write unless it\u2019s perfect right off the bat won\u2019t get very far.<\/p>\n

As NaNoWriMo gains popularity and influence among writers of all sorts, many local bookshops and libraries have organized writing communities to offer local participants support and encouragement in their novel-writing.\u00a0 The NaNoWriMo website<\/a> offers pep talks, brainstorming exercises, tips on mapping out your prospective novel, flair, and creatively-themed merchandise for the aspiring writer.\u00a0 There are also plenty of writers\u2019 forums where you can exchange advice, anecdotes, and rants with others who are in the same boat.\u00a0 Whether you\u2019re a serious writer looking to jumpstart that novel you\u2019ve been mulling over for ages or somebody just curious to challenge your discipline, drive, and creativity for a month, NaNoWriMo is sure to be an invigorating and fruitful enterprise that will teach you a thing or two about the craft of writing and about yourself.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Every year when November comes round, I start off with the highest hopes of being able to…","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3634","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-learning-advice"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.languagetrainers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3634","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.languagetrainers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.languagetrainers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.languagetrainers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.languagetrainers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3634"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.languagetrainers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3634\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3708,"href":"https:\/\/www.languagetrainers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3634\/revisions\/3708"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.languagetrainers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.languagetrainers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.languagetrainers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}