A few words about Nanowrimo

[valarltd]

There are many criticisms of NaNoWriMo. I can't say they're all invalid. Yes, it encourages sloppy writing. Yes, it encourages padding. It makes people who really can't write feel like authors.

But my pet peeve is the "fifty thousand words isn't a novel." Yes, it is. By the definitions of the SFWA, it is a novel. I find the following guidelines (from the Nebula Award) useful:
Short Story: less than 7,500 words;
Novelette: at least 7,500 words but less than 17,500 words;
Novella: at least 17,500 words but less than 40,000 words
Novel: 40,000 words or more.

Just because we're used to 350-800 page monstrosities doesn't mean that 200 pages isn't a novel. And 50K=~200 mass market paperback pages. Han Solo at Star's End, one of the defining novels of my youth, clocks in at 180 pgs.

I go into NaNo hoping to get a rough draft. I've sold many of the pieces I've written for Nano over the years:
Nikolai
Glad Hands
Alive on the Inside
Sky-rat
Showdown at Yellowstone River
Shell-Shocked
One Gift at a Time
Chain-male

They all required a lot of rewrites, but you can end up with something salable if you do it right.

Comments

[stormsdotter.livejournal.com]

I'm doing NaNo. I know I'll have to keep up the word count past November to get my novel finished, but I'm doing it.

I have a critique group to help me turn it into a "real" novel.

[baka-kit.livejournal.com]

There's this oddly puritanical sort of subtext to some of the anti-NaNo arguments; I get the feeling that to some of them we all look like we're having way too much fun over this thing that they agonize over.

But then, one of my favorite writing comments comes from Lawrence Block (and I'm sure I'm paraphrasing, but ...): "Any clown can bat out a short story. Only the really determined clowns can write a novel." His point being, that just applying butt to chair and stringing together words, sentences, paragraphs, scenes, is something to be proud of.