101 Reasons to Stop Writing

S.Y. Affolee is a pseudonym for a NaNoWriMo veteran, who’s been blogging her experiences with the 50-in-30 game since 2001. She details her writing process extensively, which must be fascinating to a student of forensic literary analysis.

She passed 50k in 24 days, which makes her exactly half the word-producer that Heather is.

How many times have you participated in NaNoWriMo, and what was the result?

I’ve done NaNoWriMo since 2001 which means this year is my sixth. That’s five 50,000+ word stories in first draft form sitting around collecting electronic dust with a sixth on its way.

What value do you place on completing NaNoWriMo?

I view the whole thing as a writing exercise. Sure it’s fun and a challenge, but I don’t get so worked up about it that I abandon my other responsibilities to pretend to be an unkempt and antisocial writer for one month (and reap the supposed “perks” thereof). There are no perks unless you count people looking at you funny if you happen to mention what you’re doing.

How much time will it take to write 50,000 words? How do you divide the workload across the 30 days?

Hopefully I can finish before November 30 so I don’t have to wrestle with the mad rush of “verifying” the 50,000 words with every other participant. I don’t scrupulously look after the quota of 1,667 words per day or set specific goals. I like to have enough flexibility so I don’t have to stress unnecessarily.

Do you plan to (eventually) submit the result for publication? If so, how much additional work do you expect to do?

No, I don’t plan to publish my NaNoWriMo efforts. Because this is more of a writing exercise to me rather than something I’d want to inflict on the book buying public, I just leave the draft as it is. I’m primarily a short story writer-so there’s always the possibility that I might borrow some ideas from my NaNoWriMo novels. But even short stories go through the wringer with extensive edits and rewrites before I even consider it finished.

Do you participate in the NaNoWriMo community? How do you think the community aspect affects the experience?

I think there’s actually a certain dichotomy about the NaNoWriMo community. There’s the online community and then the real life meet-ups-both have their benefits, but the atmosphere (to me, anyway) is quite different.

The online community has evolved from a chaotic, yet intimate hodgepodge from the Yahoo! Groups message board in 2001 to the chaotic and intimidating behemoth on the official site’s forums today. The great thing now is that with so many participants, there’s bound to be somebody who’s knowledgeable about any conceivable subject. On the other hand, people are less likely to pay attention to any comments you make. This is probably why every year, I post less and less. In a lot of ways, the online community is a bit impersonal.

I’ve always had positive experiences with the regional meet-ups. I’ve been to gatherings in four different states throughout the years, and although the individuals were different, the goals were the same. I think the greatest benefit these meetings bring is accountability. If you actually know a participant in real life other than just some random blabbering on the computer screen, you’re more likely to crank out those 50,000 words so you don’t have to say you failed the next time you see them. Or at least that motivates me.

Would you recommend the experience to other writers, published and unpublished?

Absolutely. The motivations and goals of every participant are different and signing up for the challenge doesn’t automatically make you a novelist, but there is no doubt that this will bring home the point that writing takes discipline.

If you were in charge of NaNoWriMo, what rules/parameters would you set?

I think the current rules are actually pretty fair. But perhaps the official stance does misleadingly glamorize the whole thing. I don’t think people writing 50,000 words should be automatically labelled as authors and be pampered just because they’re participating in this crazy challenge.

Although if I had to change any rules, I would totally lay the smackdown on the definition of what constitutes a novel. It has to be original, fictional prose. No fanfic, autobiography, non-fiction, or epic poetry. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to write any of the above, but those are not original novels. There should be none of this namby-pamby “if you believe you’re writing a novel, we believe you’re writing a novel too.”

It’s refreshing to see someone so determined not to let the spectre of publication ruin a perfectly good hobby.