I believe in NaNoWriMo. It didn’t exist when I was in high
school and college writing my first novel.
I am sure I would have gotten to The End (instead of writing two 100
page novels that petered out mid-way) if I had known I was part of a national
wave of writers working on their 50,000 word first draft. *
I also believe that NaNoWriMo books are good books—books
worthy of publication with a little spit and polish. I know a lot of people think they are throw-away
books, but Riverdale Avenue Books had a NaNoWriMo contest in 2014 and we
published what I consider to be one of the best science fiction titles I’ve
ever read. Untrustworthy by JR Gershen-Seigel is an LGBTQ Hand Maid’s Tale. It is so
good that I had to ask the author if she had really written it in 30 days, or
if it was a work shopped trunk novel she had submitted for the contest.
The point of that is that I want to encourage
NaNoWriMo. So, I begged my wonderful
staff of free lance editors to commit to reading NaNoWriMo submissions this
year, and Riverdale Avenue Books will be having a NaNoWriMo contest again. Submission details to follow.
And Romance Daily News
will be supporting NaNoWriMo all month long with as many encouraging articles as
we can print.
Please feel free to send an editorial note if you’d like
to guest post on this subject, lori@romancedailynews.com.
* NaNoWriMo began in 1999 when 21 San Francisco writers
pledged to write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days in July. The next year,
November was the chosen as the month, and 140 writers participated, most of who
were not from San Francisco. The following year, 5,000 people joined. In 2017,
a little under 500,000 people joined the NaNoWriMo website, but many authors
write a NaNoWriMo novel without registering.
Here is the official website where you can sign up and get
helpful advice. https://nanowrimo.org/
