"Should I NaNo?"...and a pep talk for those who've already decided to do it.

With November right around the corner (and the end of election season so close we can all taste it), the annual question has begun to pop up in the brains and social media feeds of writers:

Should I do NaNoWriMo?

Well...should you?

Obviously a lot of that depends on what else you have going on in your life, how busy you are with a day job and/or a family, and how long you'll need to hibernate after the election is over. I'm not here to answer that part.

But one of the big debates that always seems to crop up is whether NaNoWriMo is worth it. There is frequent criticism of the program because it allegedly encourages quantity over quality, that it creates unhealthy competitiveness, and discourages people who aren't able to reach the 50,000 word goal.

Here's the thing: NaNo is not for everyone. If competition motivates you, NaNo might be for you. If competition intimidates you, it's probably not. And that's completely okay.

For some people, the biggest obstacle with writing is the discipline and motivation to just get the words down on paper. This is where NaNo comes in handy. With word count goals, competition, and the go go go! mantras coming from all directions, enthusiasm alone can push a writer to get those words written. If that kind of pressure makes you freeze, no sweat -- NaNo isn't mandatory, so don't feel like you should, or you have to, or there's something wrong with you if you don't. You do you.

For many writers, the internal editor is a problem. That voice second guesses every word and every sentence, refusing to let you move forward until it's perfect. And editing as you go is a perfectly valid and reasonable way to write... unless it's keeping you from writing at all. This is where the "permission to write crap" comes in. It's not that anyone is saying "write the worst thing imaginable." It's simply permission to shut off that inner editor, all the while knowing that anything you write can be fixed later.

And there's the key -- it can be fixed later, and it'll be up to you to fix it. At the end of November, you will have a finished manuscript, but not a finished book. Still, that's an enormous leap from having nothing written at all. Whatever's on the page at the end of the month can be fixed, tweaked, and polished up. A blank page? Not so much.

If all of that appeals to you, then I would say GO FOR IT. If it doesn't, no one's going to judge you for not participating. If they do, tell them L.A. Witt said they're a butthead.

And if you have decided to participate, here is my sort-of-annual-when-I-remember-to-post-it-in-time NaNoWriMo pep talk:

You are allowed to get frustrated. You are allowed to be intimidated, overwhelmed, and discouraged. You are allowed to quit. There is no shame in throwing in the towel if it's too much. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise, and don't be ashamed or embarrassed if it doesn't work out. I promise, you won't be the first, you won't be the last, and you're no less of a writer because of it.

In the next few paragraphs, when I talk about persevering, that's not meant to shame you if you have to bail. It's meant to encourage those who need a kick in the butt so they can find that second wind and push on. Only you can know and decide if the best thing for you is to quit or to push on, and if you do decide to quit, know that you still have my utmost respect for giving it a go in the first place.

With that being said...

Folks, writing is hard work. Writing 50,000 words in a month is really hard work. When it gets frustrating, overwhelming, intimidating, and discouraging, that doesn't mean you're a bad writer, or your book is fatally flawed, or that you should drop out and take up basket-weaving instead. Writing is fun, but there comes a point when it becomes work. When it's hard. I have literally written over 100 books, and can't think of a single one where I haven't hit the wall at some point. Sooner or later, every book gives me that moment where I'm convinced it's going to fall apart, that I can't make it work, that the whole thing is a disaster. My characters aren't the only ones who get a Black Moment in every book.

In your stories, it's the "I can't go on" moment that defines your character and makes them overcome everything. For you, the writer, it's when you decide to hang it up or press on.

Press on. Even when you think your story sucks, press on. It might suck, and that's okay! That's what editing is for. And hell, let's say the story is fatally flawed and will never see the light of day. That doesn't mean writing it was a waste of time! There is no way you made it from start to finish on that story, not to mention through the editing process where you realized it didn't work, without learning something. If you hadn't learned something, you wouldn't be able to recognize the problems your story has, but you did, and you do, and you'll apply that to your next book.

Writing is a craft. It's okay to suck, because everyone who's good at anything sucked at it for a while. Prodigies and savants are remarkable because they're so rare. The rest of us have to work at it, and that means flubbing Mary Had a Little Lamb a few dozen times before you and Mozart can wow Carnegie Hall.

You've got this. Make a plan. Make some words. Make a mess if you have to. Put your nose to the grindstone and make it happen. At the end of November, even if you haven't created a book that will one day be published or whatever your goal is, you will absolutely have learned something about the craft, and you will also have learned that you can.

My writing career literally began with NaNoWriMo in 2008. It was that NaNo that taught me I could in fact write a novel from start to finish, and that I could do it fast. When it was over, I kept going. And going. And going. Eight years, 100+ books, 100+ publishing contracts, several co-authors, 10 publishers, and a full-time career later...you better believe it was absolutely worth the moments of frustration.

So, good luck. You've got this. It won't be easy, but it'll be worth it.

And if you'd like some pointers on writing faster, I will now take this opportunity to shamelessly encourage you to purchase my book, Writing Faster FTW, which is marked down to $0.99 until November 30th!

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My Not Very Reliably Annual But Still Hopefully Useful Pre-NaNo Pep Talk

I try to do this every year, but sometimes I forget. This year, I did not.

So it's Halloween. For the general population, it's time for costumes and candy. And it is for a lot of the rest of us too, but for plenty of writers -- aspiring and otherwise -- it's The Night Before.

It's....NaNoWriMo Eve.

It's also time for the naysayers to come out and tell you why NaNo is a waste of time and energy, or why you're just going to produce a steaming pile of unsalvageable crap, or whatever. And for some, that may be true. If writing under pressure doesn't work for you, then NaNo is not for you. If competitiveness adds pressure that's counterproductive to your writing? By all means, don't do it. If even thinking about word counts throws you out of your groove, don't do NaNo.  And if you fall into any of those categories, or you just plain don't want to do NaNo? That's okay!! Every writer is different.

But for many of us, NaNo is amazing. NaNoWriMo 2008 was a massive turning point for me. I finished my book with time to spare, kept that momentum going into the next book, and five years later, I haven't stopped. NaNo taught me that yes, I could write at speed. Yes, I could maintain a pace of a few thousand words a day (I eventually settled into 5,000 as my daily output). I could finish a book.  And you know what? After doing it once, I didn't have an excuse to stop. So I kept going. Five years and over fifty books later, I haven't stopped. What started out as a fun way to kick myself in the butt became the catalyst for what is now my full-time job.

And folks, just because the purpose of NaNo is quantity, that does not mean quality is out the window. If you find that the speed is causing your quality to slip, then take a step back and evaluate things. Are you getting lazy? Is the pressure screwing with your concentration? Are you obsessing about the quota to the point that the words on the page are just numbers to be counted rather than the building blocks of a coherent story?

If you find that you simply can't focus on writing well while writing fast, then you hereby have my permission to bow out of NaNo. For some people, it doesn't work. And that's okay.

But if you find that you're just getting lazy? Blowing through scenes by vomiting crap because hey, it's NaNo, and who cares? I'm currently giving you the look my mom gives me when I try to bullshit her. Yeah, that look. Pull up your big kid britches, focus on your blank document, and write. Write well. It's only 1,667 words a day. You can totally do it. This blog post is around 1,000 words and it took me 45 minutes to write. You can do it.

That doesn't mean it has to be perfect. Every book is going to need some tweaking and revising afterward. How much it needs depends on you as a writer. Some people produce near-perfect drafts the first time around, some people need to completely rewrite it two or three times. But don't deliberately produce crap just to make your quotas. All you're doing is making the revisions harder on yourself, not to mention contributing to the persistent fallacy that "writing fast = writing crap."

At the end of the day (or the month of November, as it were), you're in this to tell a story. Otherwise, you could just sit at your desk and write "All work and no play..." until it added up to 50,000. Concentrate on quality as well as quantity. Focus on your story, just push yourself to write more of that story every day than you normally would. Give yourself permission to make mistakes, but not to vomit words. Give yourself permission to leave out a few details of that battle scene, promising you'll fill them in during revisions, but don't have your main character randomly start quoting Dr Seuss just to fill in some space. Remind yourself you can always fix problems when you revise, but don't turn off your internal editor the point you're just flinging words at the screen with no style or direction.

(Also, every time you write a sex scene as filler just to beef up -- so to speak -- your word count, an erotica writer spills their wine on their keyboard.)

NaNoWriMo is a fun opportunity for a little good-natured competitiveness in the name of disciplining yourself to put your butt in a chair and your fingers on a keyboard. You already have the desire to write, or you wouldn't even be considering NaNo. Now is your chance to push yourself and to train yourself to sit down and write.

This is where the rubber meets the road, folks. One of those moments where "I'm going to write a book" divides into "forget it, this is too hard" and "holy Ned! I can really do this!" This is why I encourage every one of you to give NaNo -- and your book -- everything you have. Pour yourself into it. Obsess over it. Encourage each other and encourage yourself to make those little numeric milestones while also telling a story. Write fast, write hard, and write well.

If you have to bail on NaNo for any number of reasons, you are not a failure. NaNo is not for everyone. But don't bail on your book. You are a writer. That's why you're here. Being unable to write 50,000 words in 30 days does not make you a failed writer. The successful writer is the one who finishes, whether it takes 30 days or a year. And whether you write that book in 30 days or a year, make every word count. Tell your story. You are a writer. Therefore...write.

So tomorrow, I hope every one of you participating in NaNo launches yourself into it with "story first, word count second", but still power through those word counts. It's only 1,667 words a day. Give those words and that book everything you have, and stick to it until it's finished.

It begins tomorrow. Go forth and NaNo like it could change your life. NaNoWriMo literally changed my life and kick-started my career.

Put your fingers on the keyboard.

Write the first sentence.

And don't stop until you write the last one.

Good luck!