NaNoWriMo? No Thanks!

Deborah Ng

Oh yes. It’s November. All the writing blogs and forums are abuzz with NaNoWriMo talk, which is why I’m steering clear. Yes, I’m a NaNoWriMo grinch. Part of the reason is that I’m not a fiction writer and part of the reason is because I think it’s a little overblown.

What is NaNoWriMo?

NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month and is probably the silliest anagram I’ve come across in some time. Say it out loud with me, “NaNoWriMo.” It doesn’t really flow, does it? To make it worse, perfectly fluent writers and bloggers are saying to each other, “Do you NaNoWriMo?” “OMG!!! Yes!!!”.  It turns brilliant minds into text chatters.

The premise behind NaNoWriMo is to be able to write and complete an entire novel in a month. A whole novel, people. Not a chapter, not an outline, but an entire novel featuring plot, characters, dialogue and the whole shebang.

Why am I hating on NaNoWriMo?

So I think at this point it’s clear my annoyance at NaNoWriMo goes beyond a silly anagram.  Why do I dislike it so much? Read more