Can you write a book in 30 days? National Novel Writing Month challenges would-be authors | Books

Have you always wanted to write a book? Here’s your chance.

Now in its 23rd year, a nonprofit group known as National Novel Writing Month issues a challenge for November: Draft 50,000 words of a single story project in just 30 days. Broken down, that amounts to writing more than 1,600 words or some seven typed pages every day, for 30 days straight.

To give some context: Most finished novels for adult readers clock in at 70,000-80,000 words. While the target of the project — known for short as NaNoWriMo — falls below that number, 50,000 is still a working draft length, and the November event is considered as a herculean race to the finish.

This November, the nonprofit expects to register hundreds of thousands of participants from around the world through its website, from published novelists to writing students to absolute beginners.

For some writers, NaNoWriMo’s 50,000-word target serves as the push needed to produce a full-length draft. Several New Orleans based novelists say they found success jumping into NaNoWriMo or similar goal-oriented writing challenges.

It’s the habit that matters

“To be honest, the concept of writing 50,000 words in a month is as fantastical to me as talking to a unicorn,” said writer Chin-Sun Lee.

Lee’s forthcoming debut novel, “Upcountry” (Unnamed Press, fall 2023) centers on three women—a middle-class ex-Manhattanite, a cash-strapped single mother, and a young Korean cult member—whose lives become entangled in a small Catskills town.

“It blows my mind some writers have actually managed this,” Lee said. “Hats off to them.”

Still, Lee said, ambitious challenges like NaNoWriMo are effective because they force writers to connect with their stories every day.

She cited another writing race, #1000wordsofsummer, the project of author Jami Attenberg, in which participants write 1,000 words a day, as critical in drafting her second novel — even if, as Lee admits, she rarely hits the 1,000 words a day target.

Lee says a writing challenge is still useful for slower paced, revise-as-you-go writers like herself.

“If you can’t hit the assigned goal, customize your marathon with a daily count you can achieve,” she said. “It’s the habit that matters: showing up to get the words down.”

Initial push

Local author C.W. Cannon, whose numerous publications include both fiction and nonfiction, sees NaNoWriMo’s primary value in the initial momentum it creates.

Cannon’s most recent novel, “Sleepytime Down South” (Livingston Press, 2017), was drafted in a matter of a few weeks, he said. With a plot mirroring the Thomas Mann classic, “Death in Venice,” “Sleepytime” follows a Chicago jazz musician’s travels in New Orleans.

“The general shape of the novel remained the same after a couple of years of revision,” Cannon said, “so I still owe its completion to that handful of weeks so long ago.”

Cannon, who teaches writing and New Orleans studies at Loyola University, says that maintaining everyday attention to a manuscript is critical in its early stages.

He likens the process of writing a novel to that of a sculptor shaping raw material into a form.

“But the writer must first create the block of clay, wood, wax or marble, before any sculpting can begin,” he said. “It’s imperative for writers to get words on the page, a lot of them, before the higher order craft of shaping the material can take place.”

Cannon said the initial momentum provided by NaNoWriMo is a necessity, especially for those who draw support from a community of writers.

Setting goals vs. being ‘too strict’

While never formally pledging himself to NaNoWriMo’s 50k mark, author Alex Jennings has been conscious of the challenge and has used it to spur on his work, including last November as he was finishing the final draft of his now released and acclaimed debut novel, “The Ballad of Perilous Graves” (Redhook, June 2022), a tale of magic and music set in a fantastical version of New Orleans.

For Jennings, NaNoWriMo offered a latent sense of community while he was revising his project, by then nearly a decade in the making.

“Knowing that so many others were out there working feverishly just as I was made me feel less alone,” Jennings said.

Jennings also said that National Writing Month’s strict deadline and precise word targets encourage writers to think closely about their own work.

“NaNo WriMo is important for writers because it helps them crystallize their goals,” he said. “Even if they don’t complete their work by the end of the month, they’ll most likely get a lot done.”

Jennings urged balance when undertaking marathon challenges like NaNoWriMo: pushing to produce more than usual but also being forgiving with oneself.

“It seems to me that knowing what you want to get out of the process but not being too terribly strict about it is the way to go,” he said. “That way, if you don’t get done as much as you’d hoped, you don’t feel like a failure.”

For more information about NaNoWriMo or to register as an official participant, visit nanowrimo.org