The Wicked Ingénue

Some of you may have heard that November is National Novel Writing Month (aka NaNoWriMo. If I were a hip-hop star, that’d totally be my stage name). If not, here’s the gist of it courtesy of www.nanowrimo.org:

“National Novel Writing Month is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing. Participants begin writing November 1. The goal is to write a 175-page (50,000-word) novel by midnight, November 30.”

I have mixed feelings about this concept, and I’ve recently found myself in several heated conversations about it. Some people think it’s a good way to bring amateur and professional writers together, get people motivated and/or interested in writing, and teach writers the importance of deadlines and making time to write every day. Others think it’s a waste of time because it’s nearly impossible to pound out a decent novel in thirty days, so most of the work you would’ve done will probably have to be thrown out and rewritten.

I fall somewhere in between, but I’d say I identify more with the later outlook. Maybe it’s because I’ve been working on my memoir for over four years and I’m still not finished with it. Granted, the memoir is a 200,000-word project, but still.

After talking with a friend about this last night (he’s pro NNWM and I took the opposing view), I thought about our conversation and asked myself what bothered me most about this writing challenge. The following points are what I came up with:

-Start soapbox-

1. Leading every average Joe into believing that they have the ability to write a novel in thirty days cheapens the craft of fiction. If writing were that easy, everyone would do it and everyone would be published. The hard is what makes it great.

2. I’m all for national appreciation and recognition of novel writing, but that doesn’t mean everyone should do it. It reminds me of “American Idol” auditions. 99.9% of people who audition have no talent, and they’re clearly not honest with themselves about their ability to sing. It’s great that they’re interested in music, but perhaps they should pursue a different branch of it or simply stand back and appreciate it. Being a good reader is one thing; being a good writer is quite another.

3. I understand that challenging oneself to complete a novel in thirty days could help instill good work ethic, but if you didn’t have the drive and motivation to begin with, chances are you’re not going to retain it when NNWM ends. Being a writer requires incredible self-discipline, and it’s something you learn and develop over time. You have to learn to work through the frustration and the writer’s block and the desire to go downstairs and make coffee. As Ron Carlson would say, you have to stay in the room. If one challenge can teach you how to do this, that’s awesome. But chances are it probably won’t.

I think I’d feel a little better about NNWM if they changed it to “National Draft Writing Month”, because that’s really what it is. But even then, I’m still not comfortable with the concept. A novel is something that takes months, a year, or even many years to complete, even for the best of us.

Some might say I’m taking this too seriously, but I don’t think I’m the only writer who does. The phrase “I’m a writer” and “I’m working on a novel” are thrown around way too loosely. “Writer” is a title that should be earned, not frivolously adopted. Likewise, calling a piece of work a “novel” is something one earns, not a title you slap on a manuscript you scrambled to finish in thirty days.

-End soapbox-