The Good and the Bad of NANOWRIMO

I am sure there are many of you out there participating in the NANOWRIMO this year.
For those of you not familiar with this program, each November, writers all around the world participate in a furious frenzy of typing attempting to write a single novel in a single month. When I hear of this, I always applaud those writers taking up the challenge to put aside all of those excuses and get something written. At the same time, I am cringing at the thought of those writers and what they are producing.

While I think there are certainly benefits to such a program in terms of motivating a writer to meet deadlines and accomplish something so few people can do, I honestly have to say that the program really does miss the point of the whole concept of the writing process.

GOOD writing takes time and thought. It isn't simply a matter of putting words on the page but really crafting a story with characters that are real, situations that are believable and plots that make sense. In my humble opinion, programs such as NANOWRIMO can only lead many new writers into a sense of complete hopelessness when they hit December 1st.

Since the whole focus is on word count, the final product the writers may likely end up with (and I am betting it will be more often than not) will require far too much editing in terms of content and consistency. In other words, had the writer really taken the time to follow the writing process, to plan and think out where he or she wants to go and constantly go back and get feedback throughout the process, the time will actually end up being shorter than what they will face taking the other approach.

Now don't get me wrong. I do believe writers need motivation and this program certainly does that. But, for professional writers, you simply don't have the luxury to double the amount of your writing time because of simply "cranking out" words.

Should writers not participate in this? I'm not saying no to this. If such a program is necessary to (as one of the followers on this blog says) "to kick a writer in the butt" then by all means do it. Just know what you will be facing come December.

Scott
http://www.nanowrimo.org/