NaNoWriMo: Is the world really a better place with 50,000 extra words?
Especially if those words are rushed crap?
NaNoWriMo would say, “Yes.” Apparently crap words are better than no words. And LOTS of words are better than just a few.
This is my first year participating in the month-long writing challenge and I’m skeptical before it even begins. I’ve picked a light, fun, adventurous, and weird fiction novel project to work on. It is something that will keep me on my toes and keep my characters talking to me at all hours of the night. I have no doubt this project can propel itself forward with very little obedience on the keyboard end from me.
But I’m not entirely sure how I will feel on December 1st when it’s all over. Will I cringe when I go back to re-read what I wrote? Will I even WANT to re-read it? Will it collect dust in the corner of my iCloud drive, settling in next to those personal journals and my blog entries from 2001? I’m not sure.
But I’m also not convinced the next New York Times Bestseller is under my fingertips just waiting to be churned out in 30 days.
However, not everyone that trains for a marathon is going to win. Or even WANTS to win. Some of us just like to run and want to set a Big Goal so we can run further than laps around the block.
Is the world a better place for the thousands of treadmills in sweaty gyms? Not necessarily a more beautiful or productive place, some would actually argue the opposite. But the people on the treadmills might be becoming better, healthier, driven, more fit, less-likely-to-die-of-a-heart-attack versions of themselves.
Even if my 50,000 NaNoWriMo words don’t change the world, I know they will certainly change me. I may not make the world a better place, but I will be a better writer. And maybe a better person.
