5 Reasons Not to Participate in NaNoWriMo

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

With the mad dash to 50,000 words starting tomorrow, many writers are spending today’s writing session doing last-minute prep work for National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWiNo).

But some of you might still be deciding if you want to do NaNo at all. With so many “Planning for NaNo” articles out there (some written by me), I thought it might be nice to play Devil’s Advocate and share some reasons why it might not be a good idea to do NaNo.

1. A daily word count goal stresses you out.

If the thought of forcing yourself to write 1,667 words every single day no matter what causes you to break out in a cold sweat, NaNo might be a little much for you to handle. It’s a lot of pressure, especially for those who don’t usually hit a four-digit daily word count. Even worse, missing one day means there are that many more words to add to the next day’s goal, so hitting the target gets even harder, until it’s insurmountable and you just give up.

If just reading that sentence twists your stomach in knots, there are much better ways to motivate yourself to write that don’t cause undue stress.

2. Competition brings out the worst in you.

Let’s be honest here—we’re not all good winners. Some of us thrive a little too much on competition and we can’t help but rub our writer friends’ noses in our daily word counts (5678 words, take THAT FunkyWriterGuy29!). Competition makes us crazy and all we care about is the number of words, not the quality of those words. Winning is what matters, not the opportunity to get a solid chunk of writing done on a story we want to tell.

If NaNo will cause you to lose friends and drive your family nuts, maybe it’s not such a good idea.

3. Not hitting a goal makes you feel like a failure.

NaNo can be tough and not every one “wins.” If you’re already feeling negative about your writing or writing career, and you’re doing NaNo in the hopes that it will “fix” something, and then you don’t reach 50,000 words…that could send some writers into a blue funk that stops them from writing at all. Instead of rejoicing at whatever words they did write, they focus on the “loss” and how that means they’re not a “real writer” at all. (And we ALL know this is nonsense—a real writer is someone who writes. Period.)

Don’t let an event designed to motivate and encourage writers be the thing that makes you give up writing.

4. Pressure kills your creativity.

Some writers thrive under pressure and live for deadlines, but others feel it wrap its icy fingers around their throats and squeeze the motivation right out of them. Being creative on demand doesn’t work for them at all and forcing it does nothing but make them stare in terror at a blank screen. If the words do come, they’re terrible words, which only adds more pressure and sends the muse running.

Be kind to your muse. Don’t throw her under the bus for no reason.

5. You just don’t have the time.

Then there are the writers who are perfectly capable of doing NaNo, but family is coming in for the holidays, they have a huge presentation or report due, the kids need a lot of help this month—whatever the reason, there’s just not enough time to deal with a speed run on a novel. And they feel guilty, because thousands of other writers with busy months are doing it and managing just fine, thank you very much. Even if they want to do it, they know it’s just too much and will only lead to heartache.

You know your life and what it needs, so you shouldn’t feel guilty if you skip this year’s NaNo. There’s always next year, or any of the Boot Camps throughout the year.

The Compromise

If you’re still on the fence, you can compromise. Enjoy the fun of NaNo, but choose a word count goal that’s manageable for you. Is 10,000 words more your speed? Go for it! Maybe do half and aim for 25,000 words. Maybe forget the words altogether and decide your NaNo goal is to write for at least one hour every day. Whatever you choose to motivate yourself is okay.

There’s nothing wrong with sitting NaNo out if you want (or need) to. That doesn’t make you any less of a writer, and shouldn’t make you feel bad about not participating. Remember, more writers don’t do NaNo than do it, so it isn’t as if you have to spend your November stuck to the keyboard.

After all, the leaves are starting to change and it’s beautiful outside. Who can blame you for enjoying that?

Who’s not doing NaNo this year? Is your reason on this list?

Looking for tips on planning, writing, or revising your novel? Check out one of my books on writing:  Planning Your Novel: Ideas and Structure, a self-guided workshop for planning or revising a novel, the companion Planning Your Novel Workbook, Revising Your Novel: First Draft to Finished Draft, your step-by-step guide to revising a novel, and the first book in my Skill Builders Series, Understanding Show Don't Tell (And Really Getting It).

A long-time fantasy reader, Janice Hardy always wondered about the darker side of healing. For her fantasy trilogy The Healing Wars, she tapped into her own dark side to create a world where healing was dangerous, and those with the best intentions often made the worst choices. Her novels include The Shifter, Blue Fire, and Darkfall from Balzer+Bray/Harper Collins. The Shifter, was chosen for the 2014 list of "Ten Books All Young Georgians Should Read" from the Georgia Center for the Book. It was also shortlisted for the Waterstones Children's Book Prize, and The Truman Award in 2011.

Janice is also the founder of Fiction University, a site dedicated to helping writers improve their craft. Her popular Foundations of Fiction series includes Planning Your Novel: Ideas and Structure, a self-guided workshop for planning or revising a novel, the companion Planning Your Novel Workbook, Revising Your Novel: First Draft to Finished Draft, your step-by-step guide to revising a novel, and the first book in her Skill Builders Series, Understanding Show Don't Tell (And Really Getting It).  

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