Thirty Days of Literary Madness

by J.A. Campbell

WriterJACampbell.com

“I think I want to write a novel someday.”

“Oh yeah? What about?”

“I don’t know. Like, my philosophy or dragons or something. Yeah, definitely dragons.”

“Cool! November’s your month.”

November is National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo, where over 200,000 people worldwide get together virtually and locally for thirty days and nights of literary abandon. The goal: write 50,000 original words in a month. The process: 2000 words per day will get you done by Thanksgiving, 1667 words per day will get you done on the last day.

Fifty thousand words in a month seems like an impossible task. Not so! In 2010, out of 200,500 participants, there were 37,500 winners. Yes, over thirty thousand people all over the world wrote 50,000 words in a month.

NaNoWriMo started in San Francisco in July 1999.Twenty-one people participated. Chris Baty, the founder of NaNoWriMo, says that he and his friends “wanted to write novels for the same dumb reasons twenty-somethings start bands. Because we wanted to make noise. Because we didn’t have anything better to do. And because we thought that, as novelists, we would have an easier time getting dates than we did as non-novelists. So sad. But so, so true.” They thought it would be a painful, embarrassing experience, but what they found was that it was a heck of a lot of fun. “Novel-writing, we had discovered, was just like watching TV. You get a bunch of friends together, load up on caffeine and junk food, and stare at a glowing screen for a couple hours.”

From that crazy experiment in 1999 of 21 people, NaNoWriMo has grown to over 200,000 participants in countries all over the world. I highly recommend reading the full history that Chris Baty has published on the NaNoWriMo website: NaNoWriMo.org/eng/history.

All of this begs the question of what a writing challenge has to do with the local music scene. Well, Fort Collins just happens to have one of the best NaNoWriMo groups in the world. Music? Well, many hours of music are consumed while novels are written in November, but really it boils down to is writers are artists, and the local NaNoWriMo group would love to have any local artist who is interested in writing join them.

Back in 2005 I was in school, new to the area, and had only a couple of friends. No, this isn’t a sob story; my few friends were awesome. I was happy. Then on November 1^st I discovered NaNoWriMo. In 2000 I decided I wanted to be a novelist. To that end I started many projects, worked on many stories, wrote often, but I was missing a key component to my novels. The Ends. I had yet to finish one single novel or story. I hadn’t figured out how. All that changed in 2005. I thought 50,000 words seemed impossible, but I signed up anyway. My hands literally shook as I joined the forum and registered as a WriMo (what NaNoWriMo authors call themselves). You can still find me on the NaNo forums; I’m Firewolf. I had no idea what I was going to write, so I thought for a few minutes, remembered a vague idea about a girl who has fantastical adventures on horseback and decided that yes, this was my novel. I started writing. I also explored the forums on the NaNo site and discovered that other people in Fort Collins were doing NaNo. I thought that was pretty cool, especially when I read about write-ins. Then I did something even more daring: I went to one.

A write-in is when a bunch of WriMos gather with their laptops, typewriters, notebooks, or other writing tool of choice and write together. It might sound a little strange, but write-ins are the single best way to get 50,000 words in a month. It is inspiring sitting around writing while other people write. Word wars break out and writers battle for the highest word count over a certain period of time. It is also a great place to meet like-minded people. Writers are often a reclusive group, but November pulls them all together and great friendships are made; I would say that I met over half my friends either through NaNoWriMo or through those I met there.

The words you write don’t have to be good words. I had no idea if I could really write fifty thousand words in a month, and in my desperation for words, I wrote a chapter on trail-hitching. I described the process in detail, for an entire chapter. What drivel! But, I wrote my 50,000 words and I learned the most valuable lesson of all. How to push through the dreaded middle of a novel and get to the words, “The End.” This chapter has become infamous; people I’d never met until the last year have heard of this literary disaster. It makes me proud, in an embarrassed sort of way.

You’ll recall that I mentioned Fort Collins has one of the best groups in the world. I say this because of last year (and I’m biased). NaNoWriMo is free to participate in, but the program does take donations that help fund the many different projects that the Office of Letters and Light, the people who run NaNoWriMo, put together. For instance, they bring free creative writing programs to kids and adults in over 3,000 classrooms a year. Last year the Office of Letters and Light did a book drive to collect as many books as possible. Then a company would sell the books for the Office of Letters and Light and all the proceeds would go back to the program. It was the first year they did it, and as an incentive, they offered a prize to the winner: a pizza party hosted by Chris Baty himself. Fort Collins, going up against entire states and regions like Chicago, quietly collected ten thousand books and won. We were the best! It was really amazing to meet Chris Baty and Lindsay Grant for our party last month. Fort Collins has a very high completion rate, write-ins every day, and really great Municipal Liaisons (MLs).

MLs are the people that volunteer to run the local NaNo groups. I believe Spleen, known in the real world as Robin, was our ML the first couple of years I did NaNo. Then the very talented Shmoo and Traevoli, or Tam and Simmon, took over for several more years. Our MLs for the last couple of years are Zomby13 and Bonnie_Grace, or Jewels and Bonnie. We have a lot of fun with usernames. I chatted a little with Zombie13, AKA Jewels, about her NaNo experiences. She got involved in 2007.

LMC: What has NaNo done for you and your writing?

Jewels: I never considered writing before. Now I dream of actually being published. It also gives me a space to be completely me.

LMC: What do you think is the most important aspect of NaNo.

Jewels: I think it’s the community. With all the energy that each individual brings, you can’t help but be motivated to reach for something great.

LMC: Tell me a little about the young writer’s program and its local success.

Jewels: The YWP [Young Writer’s Program] is NaNo for anyone in grades k-12. They have modified word count goals, but it’s still just as tough. The wondrous thing is getting to the kids before they learn that writing is a chore. There are many teachers around Fort Collins that do the YWP with their students, and the Poudre River Public Library District has its own virtual NaNo classroom that any child can join. We have many of these young writers come to our weekly write-ins. In fact, because we welcome young writers we have whole families that participate together, which is amazing to witness.

LMC: Why do you think FoCo has such a successful and active NaNo group?

Jewels: I think our group is so successful because of the lengths we’ll go to help one another. We’ve had people offer rides, help with transcribing for someone with an injured hand, and give housing to someone in need. There is literally nothing our WriMos won’t do to help each other out. We may not have much in common except our love of writing, but it makes for great friends.

The Office of Letters and Light has expanded from just running NaNo in November, to having Script Frenzy in April, Camp NaNoWriMo over the summer, and the Young Writer’s Program to encourage youth to participate. You can find out more information and sign up at the website NaNoWriMo.org. The quotes from Chris Baty earlier were from the NaNo website.

LMC: I encourage you to join us if you’ve even just contemplated writing a novel. It’s a great group of people and a heck of a lot of fun.

Category: Noco Music Scene