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NaNoWriMo -- Let the Typing Begin
Published: 10/30/2008 9:47 PM
Last Modified: 10/30/2008 9:47 PM

It begins Saturday.

That's when a few hundred Oklahomans will sit down before a computer, or a typewriter, or a pad of paper, and write a word.

One down, 49,999 to go.

Yes, it's November, which means it's National Novel Writing Month -- NaNoWriMo for short. For the past ten years, increasing numbers of people have taken the pledge to spend the 11th month of the year trying to write at least 50,000 words of prose.

A fellow named Chris Baty came up with the concept, which has grown from a kind-of-a-joke competition among friends into an international sensation. People from all over the world take part -- signing up on the NaNoWriMo website (www.nanowrimo.org), posting snippets of their novels in the making, exchanging words of encouragement with fellow aspiriing novelists, and in general losing themselves a world of their own making for about 30 days.

Hey, given what's been going on in "the real world" the past few months -- gas gouging, stock market plummeting, jobs disappearing, the distressingly empty battle royale between "The McCainiac" and "Obamamamajama" -- escaping into fantasy (or space opera, or murder mystery, or historical romance, or avant garde literature) seems like a pretty good idea.

Some NaNoWriMo participants have been able to parlay their November output into published books. The most notable is probably Sara Gruen, whose novel "Water for Elephants" has been a best-seller for months. That novel was started during a past NaNoWriMo.

The last time I checked, at least 150 Oklahomans had signed up. Likely there are many more -- not everyone fills out the "Author Info" form as completely as some do.

50,000 words in 30 days. That works out to 1,667 words a day.

Or, to put it another way, writing something about as long as "The Great Gatsby" or "The Catcher in the Rye" in a month. Note we said, "as long as," not "as good as."

Sound easy?

We'll let you know



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ARTS

James D. Watts Jr. has lived in Oklahoma for most his life, even though he still has people saying to him, "Don't sound like you're from around these parts." A University of Oklahoma Phi Beta Kappa graduate, Watts has received the Governor Arts Award, Harwelden Award and the National Conference of Christians and Jews Beth Macklin Award for his writing. Before coming to the Tulsa World, Watts worked for the Tulsa Tribune.

Contact him at (918) 581-8478.

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