I’ve been writing professionally for a few years. Before that, I used to be paid to review and edit the works of other writers, as a publisher, and now I am making the text. I’m not used to write fiction, I mostly write guides – travel, yoga, or games, and sometimes stories based on my personal experience.
But fiction always interested me, not only as a reader. I wrote my first novel at 10, a mere plagiarism of The little princess by Sarah F. Burnett. After reading this book, I imagine a similar story, identical characters, I just changed their names and let them die when I didn’t know what to do with them. I wrote on a black notebook using a dramatic fountain pen, and I even add a “guest book” for comments (my best friend and her mother only read it). But I wasn’t so naive and knew it sucked. I threw it away. The idea of writing a novel stayed with me. Years later, I tried to write another novel, this time using my own ideas and characters. After a few months of scribblings, I realized I wasn’t going very far. I asked a trusted reader to give me his opinion, I was told to keep going but I gave up. I told myself that at least it taught me something: what not to do. Still, I didn’t move on from the idea that “some day it would happen”.
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On November 1st, like many other people in the USA and everywhere else in the world, I’m starting the NaNoWriMo challenge: 30 days to write the first draft of a novel. It doesn’t matter which genre, or the quality of the text. What to we win at the end of the month? To have a first draft of a novel. That’s it.
I’ve know about NaNoWriMo (= National Novel Writing Month) for a while now. At my first job in Boston, a colleague of mine did it: she wrote a romance in 30 days. I was intrigued, checked out their website, subscribe to the newsletter, but I never started anything. I’ve kept reading once in a while books about writings, like On Writing by Stephen King, and Bird by bird by Ann Lamott. I was waiting for the ideal moment to start my Big Novel. I was picturing what I thought the ideal moment: I would break my leg (by accident), wouldn’t be able to move for 3 months, rent a cabin by a lake (or better: the ocean) in Maine, and let the inspiration flows.
Let’s be real: in the past 6 year, it didn’t happen, and it will most likely never happen. I got the annual September newsletter from NaNoWriMo: of course, it was still going in 2017. I decided that finally, this year was the one. I checked out the first prep video, I recognized myself in the nerdy hosts, I did the recommended exercices and even bought the guide No plot, no problem, by Chris Baty, who founded NaNoWriMo in 1999. 21 people signed up for this first intense writing session: the challenge was the same already: 30 days to write a novel. The novel was defined simply by the quantity = 50 000 words. Setting a deadline was the main incentive, no edit was required: you had to shut down your inner editor in order to get those words on paper. Instead of thinking of writing, or compiling tons of ideas in a notebook, or editing endlessly, these 30 days were – and still are – the moment to WRITE.
NaNoWriMo was then set up in November, just because it’s a more suitable month to stay in front of a computer than the sunny July for instance. I liked reading No plot no problem which I found full of practical recommandations and pep talks. It gave me some good hints on how to prepare before November, in what’s called “Octoberprep” (I love how English always makes up words).
In France we have this cliché about writers that only inspiration and natural gifts matter and make the true writer shines. The idea that writing is a craft or can be taught is almost too mechanical to be accepted. But I do believe that you get better at writing, and I hope this month will teach my something on the fiction writing side.
I did my Octoberprep, I have a rough idea of my characters and plot I want to develop (a very rough idea of a plot, I more have a setting I’d rather say). I’ll see what I can do and I hope to go with the flow and reach the 50 000 words at the end of November.
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✎ Is anyone here has done NaNoWriMo before or plan to do it this year? Let me know!
