Gentlewriters: Start your engines

As a distraction from the ongoing drama of the election, we could talk about something almost as controversial: Nanowrimo.

In case you’re one of those blessed not to know anything about Nano, it stands for National Novel Writing Month. It started sometime in the early 2000s as a challenge to aspiring writers: write 50,000 words in a month. That’s not quite a novel (unless you’re in romance), but it’s the bones of one. In order to succeed, you need to average 1,667 words per day for the entire month, including Election Day and Thanksgiving.

I’ve been doing Nano for several years, and I’m well aware that it has its critics. For one thing, some of the writing advice offered to Nano-ers is truly terrible: ways of turning one word into three, how to streeeeetch out your descriptions to get more words, etc. Piling on unnecessary verbiage to pad the word count teaches poor writing habits and makes for a lot of editing work on the other end (despite its frequent use in academia). Strunk and White said it first: Omit needless words.

For another, there is a nasty habit among some beginners to crunch through Nano, “win” by writing all 50,000 words, declaring it done and submitting it immediately to publishers. No rest period, no edits and proofreads, no beta readers. This has become common enough that many small presses choose to close to…