The LoNoWriMo FAQ

created by Ryan Finholm and Brian Raiter
  1. How long is 50,000 words? How many pages?
  2. Depends upon page size, font size and spacing. The Great Gatsby is about that long, as are Of Mice and Men, and Brave New World. It's a short novel, but indisputably a novel nonetheless. When these books are published as paperbacks, they typically run somewhere around 200 pages.
     
  3. How much writing is that per day?
  4. For the 31-day month (March), it's about 1,613 words per day. For the 30-day month (November), it's about 1,667 words per day.
     
  5. How do you win? What do you win?
  6. You win by becoming the author of the first draft of a 50,000-word novel in a single month. There are no prizes except bragging rights.
     
  7. How is my word count confirmed?
  8. Only by the honor system. But why would anyone lie? It would be like cheating at solitaire.
     
  9. Can I start writing before the 1st?
  10. No.
     
  11. Can I outline my plot, make notes on characters, do research, etc. before the 1st?
  12. Yes, that can be a good idea. Too much pre-planning, however, can have a constricting effect. So to avoid this trap, you only get to do such research in the week before the writing starts.
     
  13. I think I'd like to participate. What should I do?
  14. Contact breadbox@muppetlabs.com during the month prior to the event, and you will be added to the list of participants. Your daily progress will be tracked on our web pages (which reduces the temptation to bail out during the second week). You are also encouraged to print out and sign the Month-Long Novelist Agreement and Statement of Understanding.
     
  15. What happens if I lose steam in middle of the month?
  16. Call or email a fellow participant for a pep talk (the authors of this FAQ have had some experience in this), and/or read No Plot? No Problem! by Chris Baty, which has many excellent ideas for staying on track. We highly recommend checking out that book beforehand anyway, if you are interested in participating. You can find out more about it here.
     
  17. I can't write the great American novel in only a month.
  18. That's not a question, it's a statement. Keep in mind that this is just a first draft. You get to focus on quantity of words over quality of prose. It's to give you the foundation of the novel you always wanted to write. If you want to, you can work on it after the month is over and edit, add, and re-write until it is the great American novel that you wanted it to be.

And this is pulled directly from the Nanowrimo website FAQ page:

  1. If I'm just writing 50,000 words of crap, why bother? Why not just write a real novel later, when I have more time?
  2. There are three reasons.
    1. If you don't do it now, you probably never will. Novel writing is mostly a "one day" event. As in "One day, I'd like to write a novel." Here's the truth: 99% of us, if left to our own devices, would never make the time to write a novel. It's just so far outside our normal lives that it constantly slips down to the bottom of our to-do lists. The structure of NaNoWriMo forces you to put away all those self-defeating worries and start. Once you have the first five chapters under your belt, the rest will come easily. Or painfully. But it will come. And you'll have friends to help you see it through to 50K.
    2. Aiming low is the best way to succeed. With entry-level novel writing, shooting for the moon is the surest way to get nowhere. With high expectations, everything you write will sound cheesy and awkward. Once you start evaluating your story in terms of word count, you take that pressure off yourself. And you'll start surprising yourself with a great bit of dialogue here and a ingenious plot twist there. Characters will start doing things you never expected, taking the story places you'd never imagined. There will be much execrable prose, yes. But amidst the crap, there will be beauty. A lot of it.
    3. Art for art's sake does wonderful things to you. It makes you laugh. It makes you cry. It makes you want to take naps and go places wearing funny pants. Doing something just for the hell of it is a wonderful antidote to all the chores and "must-dos" of daily life. Writing a novel in a month is both exhilarating and stupid, and we would all do well to invite a little more spontaneous stupidity into our lives.


Home