National Novel Writing Month is here; no more excuses

Proust lined his bedroom with cork panels, muffling any outside noises that might distract him. Trollope got up at the crack of dawn, seven days a week, pounding out 2,500 words before starting his day job at the post office. Hemingway caroused all night and then let the Parisian sun steam the booze out of his pores before scribbling in pencil. Even Dr. William Carlos Williams wrote poetry on the backs of prescription pads—in between patients.

You? Sit in an armchair at Portfolio, pull a Moleskine notebook from your impressively battered shoulder bag, and doodle. You look out the window, order some coffee, flirt with the barista. I’ve seen you.

But now it’s November, a.k.a. National Novel Writing Month (“NaNoWriMo”), which means you have, at last, an excuse for no more excuses. What began in 1999 as a bizarre challenge among friends has become an international 30-day literary frenzy. Last year, more than 79,000 people registered at www.nanowrimo.org. Almost 13,000 of them finished the month as champions—meaning they’d written a 50,000 word novel in one month.

And it’s not all crap: “winners” have won literary prizes and book deals for their efforts. (Others . . . have not.) But since it’s come up, let’s talk about the crap: every successful writer who has ever droned on about “craft” has also pointed out that quality comes from quantity. NaNoWriMo believers concur, insisting that your fear of crap is what keeps you doodling—and not writing—in that famous notebook.

They also insist that 50,000 words in 30 days—1,667 words per day—is a goal within reach of us all, no matter how busy we may claim to be. If you need inspiration, they have it to spare: at the website, in founder Chris Baty’s No Plot? No Problem!, and at the many marathon writing sessions that even now are scheduled in coffeehouses all across the country.

You know what you have to do.

FOR INFORMATION ON NATIONAL NOVEL WRITING MONTH, VISIT NANOWRIMO.ORG

Tags: doodling, fiction, moleskine, nanowrimo, novels, portfolio, Rachel Powers, writing