Jaye Wells

So November is here, and we all know what that means: National Novel Writing Month. If you’re a follower of writers and writer blogs, you’ve no doubt heard of this phenomenon. If you haven’t heard of it, it’s basically where you commit to writing 50,000 words in 30 days.

Wow, that sounds like a lot doesn’t it? 50,000 words? Wowza! But not really.

Here’s the thing: 50,000 words divided by 30 = 1666ish words a day. Now, assuming each manuscript formatted page is about 250 words, you’re only looking at six pages a day.

Okay, so six pages a day may sound like a lot of you’re not writing regularly anyway. And, yes, everyone writes at a different pace. When I’m on a roll, I can easily knock out 15 pages in a few hours. I’m not saying all those pages are gold, but they’re usually decent. But, Jaye, I hear you saying, you’ve been writing a long time. You’re paid to write. It’s easy for you.

Admission: I rarely write every day. I’m usually a binge writer. I’ll knock out a few dozen pages over a couple of days and then have to give myself a little break to marinate before the next bender. This is part of the reason I always end up beating my head against a deadline. I’m tired of working this way, so I’ve been trying to get into the habit of writing every day too.

This is why I’ve signed up for an Artist’s Way course. Part of our homework is to write three pages longhand first thing every morning. When our teacher told us that, there were lots of groans and excuses flying around the room. Not being a morning person myself, I’ll admit I had my own doubts. But I’ve been doing it for the last six days, and you know what? It’s making a huge difference. Not only am I getting my brain moving and getting all the cobwebs out before I start my day, but I’m finding my brain is suddenly offering up all sorts of new ideas. And guess what? Hand writing three pages never takes more than fifteen minutes.

I’m not claiming that these pages are good. Hell, they’re not even fiction. Normally, they’re a combo of bitching about how tired I am and talking about all the stuff I need to get done that day. But that’s okay. My internal editor isn’t allowed to comment on these pages. And that’s what Nano’s about too: Overcoming fear of being bad and just getting words down.

Of course, that’s precisely why a lot of people complain about Nano. But that’s okay. Ignore them. If doing Nano gets you writing, then who cares that 50,000 isn’t really enough words for a novel? Who cares whether what you’re writing is publishable? The point is you’re training yourself to make writing a daily practice.

Now, all that said, I’m not doing Nano officially. First, I’ve already started the project I’m working on, which is against the rules. Second, I know I work best when I’m competing with myself and not having to answer to anyone else about progress. But rest assured, my friends, I’ve set a personal word count goal for each day. I call it JayeNoWriMo. My intent is to have most of the first draft of Green-Eyed Demon done by month’s end. Will it be awesome? Probably not. But rewriting crap is a lot easier than panicking through a shame spiral because you’ve got a whole lotta nothing written.