My Love-Hate Relationship with National Novel Writing Month
‘Tis the season! And no, I’m not talking about the upcoming holidays—I’m referring to the ubiquitous, unifying force that is National Novel Writing Month (aka NaNoWriMo or NaNo).
It’s amusing that the biggest event among writers is completely unknown outside the community because whenever I name-drop NaNo, I forget that 99% of folks have no idea what I’m talking about.
So if you’re in that group, let me offer a quick explainer before jumping into my hot takes on it.
What Is NaNoWriMo?
NaNoWriMo holds a special place in my heart because it originated in the San Francisco Bay Area, where I live today.
National Novel Writing Month, founded in 1999 by Chris Baty, is a non-profit organization that hosts an annual event every November, challenging writers around the world to write 50,000 words in 30 days.
NaNo has grown from 20 of Baty’s friends to over 400,000 writers involved last year, including 90,000 students and educators. Odds are, if you have a writer in your life, they have participated in NaNo at one point or another.
And if they have, they likely have strong opinions about this challenge. At least I do! So without further ado, let’s dive into them.
What I Love and Hate Most About NaNoWriMo
Every pro has its con, so to flesh out my love-hate relationship with National Novel Writing Month, I’ll cover the two sides of each coin.
LOVE: The writing community
HATE: The inherent competition
Writing is often a lonely, isolated activity, and because novels take so much time and effort, not many people take on the endeavor in the first place. That means it can be difficult to make friends and connect with folks who share your passion.
With hundreds of thousands of writers participating each year, NaNo has a built-in community to fill this gap. Whether it’s attending live write-in events or engaging in your online regional forum, there are so many ways to find your people.
That said, even if NaNoWriMo claims to be only a competition with yourself, the challenge tends to bring out the worst in some writers as they do whatever it takes to “win.”
There is so much focus on word count quantity, regardless of quality, that it creates a sense of superiority among fast drafters and discourages slow and steady writers like myself.
And what no one seems to discuss is HOW people are able to write 50,000 words in one month, at least not beyond basic outlining advice or Pomodoro techniques. Oh, how I wish NaNo surveyed its audience to determine key factors, like whether someone is childfree, works only part-time, uses dictation software, or has another advantage up their sleeve.
Numbers by themselves never tell the whole story. Being honest about our privileges is the only way we’ll be able to accept our word counts for what they are rather than trying to reach an ever-moving target of what they “should” be.
LOVE: The much-needed celebration
HATE: The counterintuitive distraction
There’s a lot to celebrate during NaNoWriMo: the artistic spirit, the achievement badges, the pep talks from renowned authors, and all the cute merch! It feels good to donate to the nonprofit each year I participate and support its worthy cause of spurring creativity among young writers everywhere.
But where some see meaning, others see monetization, and boy do I hate how NaNoWriMo has been commodified over the years. There’s nothing wrong with maintaining accountability by participating in online writing sprints or local “Shut Up and Write” events, but NaNo has turned a wholesome cause for celebration into the ultimate distraction.
Between the scourge of shady influencers selling courses during Preptober and every authortuber under the sun hosting their own daily NaNo vlogs, you can easily spend more time talking about writing and paying to learn about writing than actually writing.
I’ve never been someone who enjoys the white noise of coffee shops or gets energized by writing in public. I’m always more productive in my office, with only a scented candle and my favorite music to keep me company.
So that means my typical NaNo tradition has been to show up to the kickoff party to indulge in the sense of camaraderie and then ignore everybody for the rest of the month. Call me antisocial, but writing is still work, and I have to get shit done.
LOVE: It can light a fire under your ass
HATE: It can also burn you to the ground
One of my friends, Sophia Le, put it perfectly: “NaNoWriMo is like the 30-Minute Meals of the writing world.” In other words, the challenge sacrifices storytelling for speed. And at that breakneck pace, there’s a reason why it’s only 30 days instead of 365. It may be blasphemous to say, but much like a fad diet, NaNo sparks enough motivation in the short term, but most people can’t sustain the same pace in the long term.
If you’ve struggled to develop a writing routine, NaNo is great at forcing you to turn off your inner critic and get words on the page. And despite my frustration with competing priorities during the holidays, November offers a slower, colder time of year that’s well suited to staying inside and writing.
However, I’ve suffered from all-or-nothing thinking, sacrificing relaxation and compromising relationships to worship at the altar of NaNoWriMo. In years past, I careened my mental health into a cliff in the pursuit of 1,667 words each day. Then—like clockwork—imagine my shocked Pikachu face when I realize I can’t keep up.
Recently, I’ve been clocking 500 words per hour, so I’m excited to see whether I can actually win NaNo for once. Now that I’m on sabbatical the challenge feels achievable, but I’m also not holding myself to 50k just because I don’t have the “excuse” of a day job.
Spending 3-4 hours per day for a whole month without stopping is a lot to ask of anyone, regardless of employment status. Asking that of someone for the rest of their writing career is, at best, misguided, and at worst, downright dangerous.
LOVE: 50,000 words is a fabulous start
HATE: 50,000 words is not enough by today’s standards
The NaNoWriMo homepage declares that nearly 368,000 “novels” have been “completed” by its users, but I have to add air quotes around those two terms because they’re too simplistic to be taken seriously.
You may have read shorter works like The Great Gatsby (48k words) or Fahrenheit 451 (46k) in school, but these novels are way too short by today’s traditional publishing standards. After all, if paperbacks and hardcovers sell for $10-20, readers want their money’s worth and publishers want their ROI.
A quick internet search will explain that most genres of adult fiction require a word count of 80,000. Romance can accept less and sci-fi/fantasy can accept more, but it’s a safe target for a debut author. The tagline, “Write 63% of the first draft of a novel,” wouldn’t be as compelling for NaNo, but that’s the reality.
Most seasoned writers are well aware of this reality and only rely on NaNoWriMo to get started on a new project or make progress on an existing one. Unfortunately, that doesn’t stop what I call “bless your heart” novice writers from declaring their 50k word vomit done on December 1st.
These writers are rightfully excited to accomplish as much as they did, but they’re not knowledgeable of the publishing industry or the work involved in revising a manuscript. If they’re smart, they’ll hire the best editors, who are typically booked out months in advance. This provides breathing room to take in feedback and examine their work with fresh eyes.
However, it’s not uncommon for the most impatient or arrogant amateurs to run their crappy books through a single round of spell check and shotgun-blast them to agents or directly to Amazon, turning December and January into a wasteland of mediocrity and lowering the value of the literary market as a whole.
So yes, be proud of drafting a novel-length work! Just don’t stop there—your journey has only just begun.
Reflecting on my NaNoWriMo Relationship
2022 marks my sixth National Novel Writing Month. I’ve jumped in and out since 2013, never writing more than 30,000 words at a time. You could call that “failing” since I’ve never officially “won,” but I see it as 133,000 more words than I would have written without the annual challenge.
I started writing my four-book romance series thanks to NaNoWriMo, and I’m grateful to the nonprofit for inspiring writers to tackle their goals and achieve their dreams. So fewer stories would exist if it wasn’t for the organizers and volunteers of this program.
Whether you’re a plotter or a pantser, an old-school Wrimo or a NaNo rebel, National Novel Writing Month can be a great way to foster community and celebrate living a creative life. Just keep a level head and don’t be afraid to redefine what NaNoWriMo means to you.
And if you’re participating this year, I welcome you to add me as a writing buddy (username: Alyssa Jarrett) and follow my updates on Instagram. Best of luck this month, and I’ll see you all in December!