I've always been a bit skeptical of the mission of the National Novel Writing Month.
It's wonderful on the surface of things: everyone has a story they can tell. Anyone can write a novel...and as you can see from the New York Times Bestseller list, heck, anyone does! What stops you from writing that great American/European/Gabonese/Uruguayan/etc. novel is just a lack of empowerment.
So NaNoWriMo makes it easy for you: "It's November. Write a novel this month — it doesn't matter if it's good! Just do it! You'll feel better and more creative." And they put together a great site to organize your projects and a forum full of other prospective novelists to "Ra ra!" you on to literary greatness.
And that's admirable. Where I, personally, have found myself skeptical in the past is in regards to the central conceit that a bad novel, or a rushed novel, is worth writing at all, or how good anything can be when every passage, every creative flourish, isn't carefully weighed.
But last year, at this time, I wasn't a professional blogger. Now I am. My perspective's changed.
I've written thousands of posts this year. They aren't all works of resplendent genius — some are so dim-witted, ill-informed and stylistically incompetent that I marvel anyone proved stupid enough to pay me for them. But there's no doubt in my mind anymore that inspiration follows sitting down and writing; it doesn't precede it. And you know? Being a productive writer actually does make me feel better about myself, even if it isn't encompassed solely by a novel of staggering genius.
In other words, I've come around.
Today's the first day of National Novel Writing Month. A thousand pot-boilers, soft-core Harlequins, machismo escapist fantasies and self-indulgent, stream-of-conscious, melodramatic wank fests will be written this month. But hell, even if none of them are good, that means there's thousands of new writers out there learning, being more creative, feeling good about themselves. And that's something worth being enthusiastic about.
So go to it, my children. Write a novel this month! And if you're working on one, why not keep us up to date in the comments? We'll ra-ra you in support along with the best of them.
NaNoWriMo [Official Site]
