NaNoWriMo

- Written by Jordan Smith

No, that title is not a typo. NaNoWriMo, meaning National Novel Writing Month, is a fairly new contest in the category of “Timed Artistic Contests.”

When the night of October 31st comes to an end at 11:59, contestants will have their pots of coffee hot, their carpal muscles relaxed and their notes strewn about like a maniacal genius. For they will be writing furiously by the seat of their pants every minute of their spare time to complete 178 pages of an original, fictional narrative in just 30 days. They will compete against an estimated 150,000 other contestants. Only 16% will actually finish.

Chris Baty, a UC Berkeley and University of Chicago graduate and now a journalist for the SF Weekly and East Bay Express, started the contest in July 1999. It started with just 21 Bay Area participants. By, 2000, NaNoWriMo had a website. Since then, the number of participants has grown so significantly that National Public Radio and CBS Evening News have done stories on the phenomenon.

Last year, 101,767 people registered. This year, the site is expecting 150,000+ participants. And you can include me, Jordan Smith, the senior editor of “That’s Art,” as one of those contestants.

As far as any other rules go, there are none. The suggested pace for contestants is 1667 words per day. It can be of any genre or length. It can even be the beginning of an even longer novel. The magical number of 50k is to distinguish the novel from the 40,000 word novella.
To make the most of one’s participation in NaNoWriMo, pick up Chris Baty’s book “No Plot? No Problem!” from any local book store. It will help the writer to improvise and write as much as possible and maintain a story. One of the objectives of NaNo is to help writers get started and have a deadline or goal as motivation.

The “Quantity Over Quality” philosophy plays in heavily in a Hemingway manner. As the late, great writer said, it is a successful day of writing when you have written one good page. If you write enough, something is bound to sound good. So write as much as you can. Afterwards, go through and take out what does not work and then edit what you want to keep.

For all things Nano related, including guidance, news, other writers’ work and processes, visit the official website at http://www.nanowrimo.org/. Stay creative and watch out next month for my much-hyped novel.


In Alameda, The Frank Bette Center for the Arts will be hosting weekly write-ins at Peet’s Coffee, every Sunday night from 7-10pm. You can contact the new Literary Arts Director Xtina for more information at Xtina@frankbettecenter.org. See you there!