Justine Manzano 
Hey all! I’ve been a little absent from blog posts this month, and here’s why! I’ve been participating in NaNoWriMo, where I am working on Book 2 of the Keys and Guardians series, The Lost Key! To learn more about NaNo, keep reading. I’ll be back to a more regular posting schedule in December.
As I am writing this blog, it is November 23rd and I have written 35,645 words toward my NaNoWriMo goal of 50,000 words in a month. In case you don’t know, National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo is an event in which every November, people try their damnedest to write a novel in 30 days. Every year, over 300,000 participants sign up. It’s not easy, but it is possible. At my current word count, I am just a little behind, but still keeping a good pace to finish the 50,000 in time. But many people don’t like the idea of NaNoWriMo. There are reasons for and against, but today I’m here to discuss what I consider to be misconceptions about the event.
The rush for a word count wins out over creatively good books. Here’s the thing. A ton of the people who join up for Nano have never written a book before in their lives, and they are certainly not writers. For them, this is a fun mission, a chance to try something they’ve never tried before. Maybe some of these people will find out they’re writers. Maybe some of them will write one sentence over and over again, and it will be about cheese. This won’t harm anyone, unless Madame Gouda decides to publish her magnum opus on the wondrous dairy product.
For writers, however, Nano is capable of teaching us another lesson. How to create a habit. It won’t make us any more or less creative. If we’re practicing writers, the hope is that we already have that tool, and if we don’t there may be no saving us. What it does teach, instead, is to write a certain amount every day, consistently. It teaches to shut down the voice in our heads that tells us to stop. We can’t slow down because something in the back of our minds says this idea might be stupid. We have to push through it because we have a word count. We’ll fix it later. And it teaches us to think outside of the box to make our plot, even the less well thought out parts, work.
NaNoWriMo creates terrible books. Maybe. NaNoWriMo probably creates terrible first drafts for some. But first drafts are not and never have been books. And if you think your first draft is publishable…I probably don’t want to read it. The Order of the Key is coming out in early 2016. I don’t even know how many drafts I did of The Order of the Key. I literally lost count. I know it’s more than five. More than five. And that was before my editor even got it. So, yes, if you’re handing in your first draft, it’s probably terrible…but you don’t get a seventh draft unless you’ve gotten a first draft down. Nano is good for that.
50,000 words is barely a book, so you don’t write a novel in a month. Well, for one thing, 50,000 words can make one hell of a first draft. Last year, one of my best friends, Louis Santiago, wrote an amazing novel in 50,000 words. Did it need development and a little expansion? Sure. But it was a damn good start. But most people will take a little more than 50,000 words to write a full novel.
It may take you another month to finish the other 30,000 words that might be in your novel. It might take you another year or two of editing. That’s okay. The point is to motivate you to create, not to motivate you to create a document ready to be sent to the printer for publication. You’ll get there. But nobody should expect it to be this month.
Nobody is buying as many books as are made regularly, so there’s no place for your stupid book idea. I read this article back in 2010 when it was published. It is still circulating, and it still pisses me off. This is a stupid article. Why? Because it determines that there is a finite amount of creativity allowed in the world, and if you discover some long hidden talent, then you’re wasting the space of so-called REAL artists who already knew about their talent. You’re knocking true writers off the bookshelves.
WRONG. NO WAY. There will always be plenty of space out there for you and other people to write books. Your book will be unique. And even if it’s not – even if you’re book is literally Twilight with witches and mermaids instead of vampires and werewolves, what difference does it make?Creation can be for others to observe, or it can be for the creator. We are allowed to tap into our creativity in whatever way we choose.
So, if you want to write a novel during NaNoWriMo, write one. If you don’t, don’t. But definitely don’t let yourself become swayed by these misconceptions. Now…maybe I should go back to writing my novel. Until next time!