50,000 Words In 30 Days!

October 30, 2012

During National Novel Writing Month this November, words by the millions will fly off the keyboards of literally thousands of novelists, young and old, all over the world. The challenge to complete an entire novel, start to finish, in one month is hard to resist.

Will all these dashed-off manuscripts be best sellers? Absolutely not. Most will never see the light of day, never be read by another human being. Will they become first drafts for future best sellers? Could be. The number of novels that started life as NaNoWriMo manuscripts and now populate the New York Times best sellers list grows every year. They include: Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen, Book One of the Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer, and Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern, just to name a few.

But the point of the exercise isn’t publication, not necessarily. The point is to dismiss the inner editor for just one month. That little voice in writers’ minds telling them - That’s the stupidest character ever written! You’ve got to be kidding, nobody’d really say that! You call that a plot twist?! During NaNoWriMo, we silence the voice and write (2000 words, four pages or more every day) for one month.

Does that sound difficult? And intriguing? Learn more at http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/about/hownanoworks. If you make an account, it's completely private. No one will ever see what’s written there but you. The site will keep track of your word count and offer lots of great encouragement and advice.

I’ve tried twice and failed twice.

But this year will be different! This year I’m not alone. Lindsey and Amanda, two other women on the Kearney staff, will be typing their hearts out, too. Several MCPL employees at other branches are also going for the gold.

Will you be attempting 50,000 words in 30 days? Let us know. The Library is a great place to write. We’re happy to cheer you on or give you a kick in the pants, whichever is most effective to help you make your goal. Feel free to return the favor.

Laura M.
Kearney Branch