The organisers call it a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing. My friend called it a train wreck. My mother called it insane.

National Novel Writing Month, abbreviated to NaNoWriMo, takes place in November and welcomes participants from all over the world. "We would call it 'International Novel Writing Month' but it doesn't roll off the tongue in the quite the same way." the team explained in their FAQ.

The objective? To write a 50,000-word novel in thirty days. Impossible, you say?

Nearly 15,000 people signed up. Only 2,076 of them finished. A few Elfwood participants tell us how victory tasted:

"I finished!" exclaimed Navah "Bonnie" Rosensweig. "I finished on Tuesday Nov 26 at 9:54pm in Starbucks. I checked my word count - it said 50,021 - and I shrieked involuntarily. And then I had to explain myself to all the concerned patrons of Starbucks."

Victoria Lee Hobbs - another writer who crossed the finishing line - related, "I reached fifty thousand words on the twenty-third, which was good, because I had a very hard week at work coming up. But I've yet to actually finish the novel. At that many words, I'm still less than halfway through the outline I made. My first reaction was something like, 'Wow, where did that many words come from?"

"I did indeed finish - all 52,278 words - and it took me the entire month, in between working full time and being ill." Said R. Bail. "My reaction was a slow one of giddy glee as I raced towards finishing, realizing that I actually did it."

Those who didn't finish were not wallowing in self-pity.

"I ran out of story at 40 000 words and didn't want to put in 10 000 words of rubbish just to bring up the word count." Angela Kingston-Smith told us. "I'm not particularly disappointed; I've written longer novels in the past and was mainly using this as an incentive to putting more time into my writing."

So, writing a story of that length in that short a time is not as impossible as it sounds. If you do the maths, you'll find that you need to write at least 1,666 words a day. We know that the muse is a fickle creature, and you may not reach the target on some days... or you may shoot well past the target on other days. There has to be some kind of drawback to this, right?

Many writers should be familiar with this scenario:

You have a great story or a great idea for a story. You plan your novel out down to the last detail because when you write it, everything has to be perfect. And you end up planning your novel forever and never writing it, because you've set a mark so high that you're afraid you'll never reach it when you start.

The organisers know it well and had this to say: Novel writing is mostly a 'one day' event. As in "One day, I'd like to write a novel."

NaNoWriMo was never about quality. In fact, it forces you to sacrifice quality for quantity. It forces you to write that story down. A lousy manuscript that you can go back to rewrite and edit is better than a great tale that never gets written.

Sometimes, it makes no difference at all, as R. Bail discovered. "What I found out was that I was producing pages of writing in an hour, rather than agonizing over one paragraph for that hour, and it comes out pretty much the same either way!"

"There are a lot of passages in my book that really make me cringe." Lisa Ann "Jae" Andresen admitted. "On the other hand, there are quite a few parts where I look back and think to myself, 'Hmmm, not bad', so I guess all in all it was a worthwhile payoff. I certainly have a lot of material to work with now."

What a large number of participants were unanimous about was that throwing quality out of the window paid off.

"I think it was worth it because I actually wrote." Christina Stayton told us.

Ellen Million added, "I've been wanting to write them for some time, but they weren't coming out quite the way I wanted. NaNoWriMo enabled me to say 'geez, it's good enough, just move along now.'"

November was filled with plenty of surprises, including surpassing the daily quota of 1,666 words, finding subplots popping out of the woodwork, dealing with characters who insist in having a say in how the story goes, and of course, finishing the novel.

"I wrote 7,000 words in one 6 hour period, early on into the project. That was the first time I really realized how seriously I was taking my novel." Said Lisa.

Navah had doubts that she'd finish. "I've never even attempted to write a novel before - short stories, novellas, sure - but never a novel. I never thought I could. Throughout the writing process I learned again and again that I could - and I did!"

Christina pointed out something that more than one of us could identify with. "I didn't know I could go for that long without sleeping."

Sleep is just one thing that was given up. TV, surfing and friends also topped the list.

"Weekly D&D games." added Lisa.

"My sanity?" quipped R. Bail.

"Lectures." Confessed Navah.

"Writing anything else." said Victoria. "And playing video games."

Ellen didn't have anything she could give up to begin with. "...which was one reason I failed."

"Perhaps I should've given up more in order to make it in time." mused Jenny Braithwaite.

However, the answer to "Would you do this again?" was a unanimous "Yes!"

Victoria couldn't get enough the first time. "I wish there was another one going on in June."

"I can't wait for next November." Said Navah.

"Yes." Ellen agreed. "And next year, I'll win, dangit. You wait and see!"

Jenny offers this piece of advice to any budding novelists, "Next year, if you feel like writing and you don't really have the time, do it anyway. The nanowrimo.org forum and newsletters were very helpful, and it was all around a very educating and worth-while experience. I recommend it to everyone, even those who don't usually write."

And after 30 days of hard work, what do you win?

Non-participants were rather startled to learn that you don't win anything. Nothing tangible anyway. The prize differs from person to person. For some, just reaching the 50,000-word mark was reward enough. For others, it was an opportunity to finally get a jumpstart on that story that has been in your head. But perhaps the greatest surprise is discovering that you are fully capable of writing it. NaNoWriMo reminds us that we should write for the pure love of it.

We'll see you this November.


The author would like to thank all those who took part in this interview. You can view the full transcript - including links to their novels and other inspiring statements that didn't get included - here.

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Georgette Tan is pleased to report that she had a blast in November. After finishing her NaNoWriMo novel, she went on to complete another story she had been dragging along all year. She is last seen catching up with her sleep.