What is NaNo?

VP_Benni

likes a colorful font
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jan 11, 2011
Messages
5,337
Reaction score
242
Location
Probably the library.
So I take it this means that the Accepted minimum words for a piece of writing to be conceived as a "novel" is 50,000 words? And that to do in a month is worthy of WAU YU DID DOO THAT!

I would say yes to the second statement ;) and not exactly to the first. NaNoWriMo wasn't exactly created to encourage people to write a novel of exactly 50,000 words and immediately submit it to places. In fact, 50k is actually quite short in most genres. NaNo is more to encourage people to write 50k of a novel in a month, and that doesn't necessarily mean that you have to FINISH the novel when you finish the 50k. :) The "acceptable minimum" you speak of kind of varies, and NaNo definitely doesn't determine what it is.

~Amber~
 

Caitlin Black

Wild one
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Sep 17, 2009
Messages
44,834
Reaction score
2,928
Age
39
Location
The exact centre of all of existence
Yeah, and I think 50k was chosen because it's sort of in the middle of regular novel-length stuff (80-100k) and novellas (20-40k), a nice round number, not *too* daunting, and could actually be novel length for those people writing for younger audiences.

At least, that theory makes sense to me. I have no sources to cite to back this up. :tongue
 

Lester.J.Blight

Time to put some pants on then...
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jul 27, 2013
Messages
174
Reaction score
9
Location
Perth, Western Australia, Australia, Planet Earth,
You know, I have had an Idea rolling around in my head for the past three years and I've struggled to get it on paper. With some planning and a strong outline, I reckon it would be worth the shot! Only live once, bring on NaNoWriMo2013!
 

carroll

Registered
Joined
Jan 13, 2017
Messages
5
Reaction score
0
1. The NaNo owners don't actually "receive" the contestants' manuscripts. You just validate your word count in a temporary upload, which is deleted as soon as the words are (electronically) counted. No manuscripts are collected by the NaNo owners.

2. With NaNovels, I would polish them, and if I felt they were good enough to worry about submitting somewhere, I would just not mention that the novel was written during NaNo. Agents receive submissions all the time. They might receive quite a few right after NaNo finishes, but they'll still receive some non-NaNo submissions during December and January. Just don't mention it's a NaNovel. If the writing is good and polished, they won't care when they receive your novel.

Thank you for the tips. I want to participate in NaNiWriMo this year. I hope it will turn out well. :)