Why do a Writing Challenge Like NaNoWriMo?

Last week we talked about the value of writing fast as compared to the value of writing slower. This week, I’m going to discuss one way to write fast. Next month is National Novel Writing Month and thousands of people participate in the writing event known as NaNoWriMo. The only goal of NaNoWriMo is to write 50,000 words from November 1 thru 30. That’s writing fast!

It’s all about getting the words out of your head and onto the page. There isn’t supposed to be any stressing over the quality of the words, the bad spelling, the lame story or anything else. The idea is to get the story out of your head. Or, as is the case of most of my NaNoWriMo attempts, to at least get a collection of very loosely related scenes out of my head and onto the page. It’s wonderful if it ends up as a compelling story sometime after November, but that is a worry for a different month. November is only about pushing those words from my brain, through my fingers and onto the page. No editing allowed!

If I don’t end up with a real book after NaNo, why would I do it? Why would anyone do it? Well, a lot of people don’t. Shonna discovered last year that she didn’t like writing that way. I, however, have scheduled November as my “write frantically” month since 2004, the first year I discovered NaNo. This is the month when I allow myself to make writing my major focus. This in the month when I write at every available moment. This is my month to play with my words. To play, but with a purpose. I don’t try to make the pieces all fit together into a story. I have a story in mind, but I just write scenes. (We’ll be talking more about how to prepare for NaNo in another blog.)

For me getting those pieces “on the table” allows me to see the story so much better. By forcing myself to write, I silence that part of my brain that edits my ideas as they filter up to the forefront of my brain. This editor so often sends them back into my brain and won’t let them through my fingers. I erase and cut and tell myself that isn’t really the direction I wanted to go.

During NaNo, though, I just write the scene, the paragraph or the sentence. If, as I progress, I realize I want to go in another direction, I go down a line or two and start anew. After all, it’s the word count that matters. So many times, though, by leaving a paragraph that, on first glance reeked, I give myself fodder that later grows, expands and becomes a huge part of the story.

But that’s how I work. You might work the same way or you might work differently. How will you know if you don’t experiment? Will you join us as we NaNo?