What I've Learned

NaNoWriMo is upon us, and I'm excited.

NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month. Each November, people from all over the world attempt to write 50,000-word novels in only 30 days.

The novel I'll be writing this year is called Ghosts of the Opera House. It's about a couple, Bill and Lorraine (perhaps her name is Patricia), who come to Maine to view the fall foliage.

Due to an unfortunate encounter with a run-away logging truck, they find themselves residents of the Norway Opera House, a building they had been admiring only moments before.

They meet other spirits there, such as Maxwell, who was a cornet player in a WWI military band; Mark, a teenage boy who creeps out living girls by kissing them; and Maud, a young woman who was murdered, but doesn't want to talk about it.

I've never written a ghost story before and am looking forward to spending a month cranking one out. Early in December, I'll post Ghosts of the Opera House on the Internet so you can read it at no cost.

The rules for NaNoWriMo are simple. Sign up for free at nanowrimo.org, write a 50,000-word (or longer) novel between November 1 and November 30, and upload your novel for word-count validation.

Participants are not allowed to start writing until November 1st, so how come I already know so much about my novel? Because you can outline to your heart's content before the start date.

Many people don't bother to outline in advance, they just start writing on November 1st without knowing who the characters are going to be or what the novel is about. Me? I'm an outliner.

You don't have to be an experienced novelist to try NaNoWriMo. Many – probably most – of the people who attempt it have never written a novel before.

NaNoWriMo won't steal your work when you upload it for word count verification. They are not interested in content, only in how many words you wrote. If you're really paranoid, do what I do: search and replace all the letters in your finished work with x so that the content you upload looks like this: x xxx xxxxx xx xxx xxxx xx xxxxx.

Their word counting bot will consider each group of x's as a word and will validate your novel's word count. Be sure to make of copy of your file before doing this, so you don't accidentally destroy your novel by turning it into nothing by x's.

What do you receive if you make the 50,000 word count on time? Nothing, but your name printed on a "winners" list. Oh, and also the satisfaction of having written a novel that is yours to do with as you will.

Don't worry if your novel is terrible. The goal is to write a first draft, not a tight, well-edited work. Word count is king. Editing can be done later. I'm still rewriting and polishing the novel I wrote last year.

NaNoWriMo was started in 1999. There were 21 participants, of whom six managed to crank out 50,000 or more words.

The next year, 140 people tried it, 29 succeeded.

In 2001, the number jumped up to 5,000, with more than 700 completing novels.

Each year since, the numbers have grown. Last year, there were 167,150 participants, 36,843 of whom finished in the allotted time.

The nice thing is, if you don't make the 50,000 word count, however much you manage to write is more than you probably would have written. And you are perfectly free to continue working on it, outside the bounds of NaNoWriMo.

There are many people in Maine who attempt WriMo, enough that we usually divide ourselves into three groups – Crustaceans, Bears, and Moose – and have word count competitions, seeing which group's members can total the most by the end of the month.

Also, there are "write-ins." Participants are invited to meet in libraries or cafes to work individually on their novels and to commiserate about how hard it is to write a full-length work of fiction in so short a time. Misery, after all, does love company.

There are write-ins scheduled for November 3, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., and November 6, from 5 to 7 p.m., at Lewiston Public Library. Write-ins are also scheduled on various dates in other Maine towns and cities.

Find out more at nanowrimo.org.