PORTSMOUTH, N.H. (AP) – Four days left. No, not for holiday shopping, but to write the next great novel.
More than 450 aspiring writers in New Hampshire are racing to write a 50,000 word novel by Nov. 30.
The contest is known as NaNoWriMo, short for National Novel Writing Month and the starting gun went off at midnight on Nov. 1. Participants from all over the world signed up in advance and must write 50,000 words, roughly a 175-page book, by midnight on Nov. 30.
It’s a crazy race, but New Hampshire participants say it brings them together with other writers.
“Professional writing is very solitary, but with NaNo, you get this big community,” said Rachel Gogan, of Dover.
Participants have been meeting in coffee shops, libraries and online forums to boost each other’s morale, describe their nervous breakdowns, offer tips and answer questions. A sub-competition has even developed pitting New Hampshire against Vermont in a race for most words written.
Gogan, who has completed a couple of NaNos, serves as liaison for the region encompassing all of New Hampshire.
“They say everyone’s got the great American novel in them,” she said. “NaNo gives you the deadlines and guidelines to get you to actually write it down.”
Katie Raynes, who’s earning a master’s degree in English literature at the University of New Hampshire, is one of the participants.
“NaNo forces you to push through the 50,000 words and not to go back and edit,” she said. “My problem is that I don’t want to write something that’s not perfect, then I can never get anything done.”
John McColley, of Somersworth, works as a standardized test scorer and freelance grant writer. He finished his first 50,000 words in mid-November and just kept going.
“He wins us big points in the word war with Vermont,” Gogan said.
But there’s no promise of a publishing contract at the end. The prize for completing 50,000 words in 30 days is a small gold halo that appears above each winner’s name on the official NaNo Web site.
About a fifth of those who enter, submit their prose and get their online halos.
Jonathan Goodnow, a 12-year-old from Pembroke, is trying NaNo for the first time this year. He loves science fiction and fantasy and is working on a futuristic novel about a human in a post-apocalyptic wasteland who discovers the event that changed the world.
He needs to write 1,667 words a day on average to make 50,000 by Nov. 30. He says anyone who loves writing should try it.
“This is something that you will always remember. If you don’t finish, at least you tried. Not many people can say that they attempted to write a novel in one month,” he said.
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