5 Reasons To Do NaNoWriMo
1) It's a good exercise, especially if you're in a rut. I lucked out last year in that I hadn't written anything new for awhile, so I got to rediscover the joy of creating a new world and new characters. I blew through the first few ten thousand words before I started to get stuck and slowed down.
2) It teaches you time management. Are you one of those people who needs two hours set aside to sit down and just focus on you're writing in order to get anything done? No, you're not. You may think you are (I used to think I was), but the pressure of NaNoWriMo teaches you to take advantage of all the little bits of time you have in the morning before work, after work, between dinner and bed time. You really can write whenever, wherever and NaNoWriMo is great for making you aware of that fact.
3) Community. This is the one time of year when thousands of writers are going through the same thing. Look on any writing forum and you'll see columns of posts of people who are doing just what you are. There is no better way to get tips than from forums like these, especially when you're all going through the same thing. Just don't use them as an excuse to kill time when you should be writing!
4) You might actually get a novel out of it. I already had the rough draft of my 1st novel done before I decided to participate in NaNoWriMo, and I didn't actually finish the rough draft of my 2nd novel during the challenge (though I did write 50,000 words in one month, so I still call that a victory), but there are plenty of people who do NaNoWriMo without having actually finished a novel. For some people, the pressure of the deadline is just what they need to motivate them to finish that manuscript. So if you've always wanted to write a novel, but haven't gotten around to it yet, you might want to try this challenge.
5) Bragging rights. You just wrote 50,000 words in 30 days. How many of your friends/family members can say that?
5 Reasons Not To Do NaNoWriMo
1) Word count is stupid. Yes, it's great to say that you wrote 50,000 words in one month, but how many of those words are you going to end up deleting when you go back to edit? 50,000 is the bare minimum length for a novel, and if you're going to try to get it traditionally published, most editors won't even look at anything shorter than 80,000. Although having a rough draft done is a huge accomplishment, the fact is that's just the first step. You still have a lot of editing to do before you can send it out into the world, and if you spent a month filling your manuscript with extraneous words so you could meet your word quota for the day, you'll have that much more work to do as an editor.
2) Poor writing/life balance. I don't think I actually turned down any social engagements when I did NaNoWriMo last year, but I did spend a lot of time writing at my parents' house. This was mostly to get free food, but also because I love spending time with them. But how much can I really say I was spending time with them when I was telling them to be quiet so I could write? It's excellent to have an exercise that teaches you to take advantage of all the moments in the day you have to write, but not at the expense of your relationships.
3) Stress. It's very stressful to spend every waking minute either writing, or wondering when your next chance to write will be, and I'm not a fan of stress. When I started last year, I told myself it was on the condition that I would not stress out over it. I did not live up to that promise. Admittedly, there were other factors in addition to the writing challenge, but as that deadline drew closer and my writing block got worse, I freaked. My family can attest to how much not fun I was to be around in those last few days. Stress is a killer and I try to avoid it at all costs, including things that can be fun for a little while.
4) It's better to do it right the first time. No first draft gets published (with the exception of some ill-advised self-published novels). Everyone needs to edit their manuscript, at least a few times, before printing, even if you used an outline. The time constraint of NaNoWriMo does not promote good writing. It promotes fast writing, and I have always been a fan of quality over quantity. You may be able to write more than other people, but how is that going to help you if your writing is so bad no one wants to read it? If you do take the time to edit your manuscript to correct all the mistakes you made in those 30 days, how much of that time could you have spared yourself by taking the time write well in the first place?
5) Thanksgiving. I have never understood why NaNoWriMo has to take place, immediately after a big holiday, during one of the biggest holidays of the year (let's not forget the busiest travel day of the year), and right before THE biggest holiday of the year. I don't think a sugar coma is the best state to write in, nor do I want to be distracted by the knowledge that I have shopping to do, when all I want is to focus on my writing. Also, some of us (by which I mean me) tend to spend a week baking in preparation for Turkey Day. Can't we just reschedule NaNoWriMo for a better month? Like June? How about January, to coincide with all those New Year's Resolutions?
So that's my take on this particular challenge. Here are the pros and cons as I see them. Feel free to do with them what you will and make your own decision.
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