NaNoWriMo: FAQ

Not the official NaNoWriMo FAQ, but my own:  the questions I get asked most frequently.

1.  Do you really have time for this?  

No, no I don't.  My house is falling apart, meals are terrible, there is clean laundry but it is all over the family room couch rather than folded away in drawers.

2. Will you get a prize? How do you win? Do the people who run NaNoWriMo read it and judge it?

There is no prize.  Well, maybe a certificate. The kids get bound proof copies of their books which is very cool.  The prize is the satisfaction that comes with doing something hard and different.  Everyone who completes their novel wins, so it's noncompetitive.  Well, I guess we are competing against ourselves and time!  No one reads it.  We submit it only for word-count purposes.

3.  Isn't this sort of a stupid way to write a novel?  

(I have never been asked this question directly.  But I've read the question many times in other venues and I know a few people who are likely to be thinking it but don't want to ask me.)

It probably is.  I've never thought about the best way to write a novel because I never wanted to write one.  As I've said before, I'm not doing this because I want to, but because my children want me to.   I think if I was going to write a novel "the right way," I'd do a lot of planning and research and outlining ahead of time.  Then I'd write it in a leisurely, linear sort of way.   Now I'm sort of planning as I go, jumping around from episode to episode, and adding in lots of detail as I go.  It's great fun, but I don't know if it's the best way to write a novel.

But I would never actually sit down to write a novel; most people won't, even those who think they would like to.  This is just a format for people to sit down and write it. It's not meant to be a polished, finished novel at the end of the 30 days.

4.  Will you try to get your novel published?

Not at the level of quality it's going to be on November 30, that's for sure!  I don't have any desire to do that now, but I have learned that it's best not to make unequivocal statements about the future so I can't say yes or no with any certainty.

5. Will you write more fiction after this?

I am enjoying this process and can envision going on with it to make this story better (whether good enough for publishing I really couldn't say).   I could see doing more research into the subject.  My story takes place in England after WWII, but I have a lot of backstory going about my characters during the war.  I'm trying to do some research as I go along, but it takes up too much time from actual writing right now. So I think I'd like to go on with it to make it historically accurate.  If I was interested in fiction, I guess it would be historical fiction.  So, who knows?

6.  What is your story about?  

I have to feed my family and then get back to writing now so I'll answer that one later.