National Novel Writing Month

 “Joel, you wanna know something? Every now and then say, “What the heck? * What the heck gives you freedom. Freedom brings opportunity. Opportunity makes your future.”                        Miles from Risky Business
Sometimes you need to step away from your life to take a look at things from a different perspective. I have done so and found that it allows me to appreciate where I am in my life, helping me to focus on what is rather than what I wish were so.
This is one of the reasons I have chosen to embark on the crazy month-long endeavor known as NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month. The task is to write a 50,000-word manuscript, (or approximately 175 pages), in thirty days. The idea alone is preposterous, yet each year hundreds of thousands of writers across the globe take part in this insane ritual.

What started as a challenge among a few friends in San Francisco has become a worldwide phenomenon. The founder is a guy named Chris Baty, who is a marvelous storyteller in his own right. He combines humor, competition and fun to make every November a month to remember. The goal is simply to write, no editing or pre outlining allowed. It is not the time to craft the perfect sentence; that comes later in March, when he sponsors NaNoEdMo, the Editing portion of this odyssey. Chris Baty makes the experience of writing a novel in a month a lot of fun. He has famous authors writing online pep talks and word count tally challenges. Montana “Wrimo’s” have an annual mock war with their neighbors to the north in Saskatoon. Student writers ranging from grammar school to grad school employ various strategies in order to meet their daily word count tallies. For most, it is unrealistic to methodically pump out 1667 words a day, neatly arriving 30 days later at a clean 50,000. Having successfully completed two of these rollercoaster rides, I can speak for those of us Mommies who have to creatively cram in writing sessions. I have lugged the laptop between piano lessons, dentist’s appointments, and even to the freezing bleachers of the ice rink in order to keep up with my daily word count. If you complete 50,000 words in a month you are labeled a winner. And frankly, what parent couldn’t use a little online badge that says they’re a winner, am I right?

The program utilizes local volunteers known as Municipal Liaisons (ML’s) organized worldwide by country, region, state, town and neighborhood. These enthusiastic planners organize a kick-off party, weekly write-ins and TGIO (Thank God It’s Over) parties. They also oversee the regional forums and serve as a source of information for the otherwise uninitiated. This model dispels the common image of the solitary writer, pounding away on the keyboard, all alone with his/her thoughts, and turns it on its head. NaNoWriMo makes novel writing a social experience.

My fellow writer friends who are in between projects have joined me in this caffeine crazed blitz for two years now. My friend, Sydne has four wins already under her twenty-two inch belt, and has since launched a successful food-writing career. One year my friend Sheila jumped on board too, and joined us for a write-in. Write-ins consist of meeting at a café, office, or bookstore, with laptops or legal pads in tow, to crank out as many sentences as possible in two hours. Some of these write-ins are NaNoWriMo sanctioned events, organized by a local Municipal Liaisons; others are sponsored by schools to encourage a collective consciousness of creativity. They even sponsor an event called the Night of Writing Dangerously in San Francisco on November 15^th, the halfway point in the writer’s race. They rent out a fantastic location like The Julia Morgan Ballroom and Wrimo’s are treated to dinner, drinks, door prizes, and 6 hours of writing with 225 of their fellow competitors. It is a pay-to-play proposition, costing $275.00 to help benefit their Young Writers Program. They raised $63,000 in 2014 and have set a goal for $70,000 in 2015.

In years past my friends and I staged local write-ins and were often given to fits of laughter as we shared ridiculous passages or found something nonsensical we’d written that cracked us up. The effects of too much caffeine and too little sleep are known to cause a lightheaded giddiness common among Wrimo’s. In one coffee shop that will remain unnamed, the music was so bad that we couldn’t concentrate. We’re talking ‘Muskrat Love’ bad. It’s hard to get into the “zone” of writing when distracted by 70’s music and hysterically laughing companions. At our only evening write-in scheduled during the month, we incorporated the time tested writing aids of pizza and beer. Just think, all the fun of a college all-nighter except it ends at 10:00 pm and you still have to go home and pack school lunches. (Not as glamorous as the Bay Area Ballroom, but fun none the less.)
All in all, I look forward to this time of year and gearing up to write like there’s no tomorrow. (Except that you need that tomorrow to hit the daily word count re-set button!) Even if you end up with 50,000 words of mostly run on sentences and lots of gibberish, there are kernels of wisdom to be gleaned from the creative process. It seems like a crazy exercise but it is truly good for the soul, to take the time to write with reckless abandon. I think it is good to unleash the brain in this way. It’s the ultimate color-outside-the-lines act of defiance that writers rarely allow into their daily, structured lives.

My girlfriends and I have pondered starting our own version of NaNoWriMo and calling it MomoWriMo occurring in a month that doesn’t include turkey basting, Christmas shopping, house guests, in-laws, cooking for crowds, and the like, say, maybe in February?

So to all you would be writers out there, think about the little time you have to yourself each day and cherish it, because who knows, you could be overcome with the urge to write a novel and tumble into the lovely black hole known as NaNoWriMo! I highly recommend that you try it, what the heck?

(* F word)