NaNoWriMo is for the Birds

In an earlier post I implied that someday I would decry our culture's obsession with "less is more." Specifically, I implied that the 140 character streams in Twitter was not enough info. This is not that essay. Though I still feel that way for a lot of things, Twitter (and small packages in general) do have their uses.

A few days ago I finished a novel. I wrote in about a month. It was for a challenge called National Novel Writing Mouth (NaNoWriMo for short), held annually in the month of November. Sounds like an impossible challenge, until you consider two things: 1) If you break it down to a daily amount, it's not that many words (1,667) and 2) It's a short novel (50,000 words). In an industry that considers 80,000 to be the lower limit, 50K sounds too short. And many continue their novels into December to beef it up into publishable range. But not I; I went 2,068 words over the 50K finish line and I reached the story's natural end. And I'm not going to beef it up. Why? Because I know of a publisher that'd be willing to see it as a 50K novel. So there's at least one, and probably more, willing to accept short novel submissions. And I think, indirectly, that Twitter has something to do with that.

This publisher is mostly an epublisher. Their clientele is comfortable reading their books on a screen instead of on a page. And many are comfortable with Twitter. They get their information in bits and flashes; they don't want to waste their time on that chapter about belly lint as metaphor for oppressive capitalism. And while this cultural ADHD has its problems (that alluded to future essay), it also boils everything down to just the essentials. There's something to be said about crystallizing communication down to the basics--a sort of right speech principle. Then, after we're done reading the short novel, we can go about doing something else in this short life. I think the Internet and sites like Twitter are helping lead the way. I don't think it'll be a bad thing in the future to see less 200K monsters out there and more 50K lean novels.

Below is a list of Tweets related to writing my novel. I didn't update my word count everyday (the days I didn't will be obvious). It was an interesting experience to give short, pertinent, themed, updates; the information Twitter is good for (not telling the world what you had for breakfast). So, in reverse order from newest to oldest, are the tweets:

246 pages. 52068 words. 1st draft of novel is DONE!!!! Now to editor, where he'll hate it. Or maybe he'll say,"Sean, I'm so stoked for you."
2 Dec

I won! (Though I'm not done w/ novel) Winning word count: 50035. I think another 1 or 2K and it'll be finished. To bed now. #nanowrimo#nano
30 Nov

48161 words for day 29. I'm at a 24 hour coffee shop/bookstore till I get to 50k. #nanowrimo #nano
30 Nov

2 days to go. I think I settled on a title. I might try to do a final word push tomorrow to finish it. D28. 46678 words. #nanowrimo #nano
29 Nov

2 scenes (I think) away from the end! And I'm all caught up. Day 27. 45303 words. #nanowrimo #nano
28 Nov

My story's officially a novel by sfwa standards (40K+ words) woohoo! Tomorrow I do a 26 hour write-in. D26, 41115 words#nanowrimo #nano
27 Nov

Too full of turkey to get to 40K today, but just barely. 2 days till another overnight write-in. Day 25. 39703 words. #nanowrimo #nano
26 Nov

Got my 1667 word count in. Good considering I had story to critique. Hopefully be @ 40K by end of Turkey Day. D24, 37673 wrds.#nanowrimo
25 Nov

Spent the day w/ Boulder Wrimos @ Atlas & Dark Horse. 2600 words written. Thanks @nicolejleboeuf 4 organizing. D23, 36013 wrds. #nanowrimo
24 Nov

The Denver Broncos suck again, which is good 'cause I had more time to write. Day 22. 33415 words. #DenverBroncos #nanowrimo#nano
23 Nov

24 hour write-in a success!Wrote about 7000 words.Think next time I'll get a bed instead of sleeping on hardwood.D21, 32031 words.#nanowrimo
21 Nov

4888 words today. Most productive day so far, by far. Hope I can continue the steam tomorrow. Day 20. 30017 total words.#nanowrimo #nano
20 Nov

Today I battled dragons, so didn't have any time to write. Interesting factoids about dragons: they metabolize platinum (hence their love of precious metals). Actually, they use it to catalyze the reaction that produces fire. And they use their hydrogen bladders as both a fuel source and to help them fly. So a good strategy--if you are a dragon slayer--is to piss a dragon off so much that she'll burn up all her (male dragons are flightless and cannot breath fire, and usually get roasted to death when they mate) hydrogen and thus cannot easily fly on her puny wings. Then it's just a matter of walking up and shooting her with a dragon pistol. Of course, the trick is not to get any casualties while doing all this. #entirely,totally,absolutely100%without-a-doubtdon'tevenneedtoaskyourgrandmotheroryourgrandfatheroryourfatherormotheroranybrothersandsistersorcousinfrankwhojoinedtheteapartybecausehethoughthe'dhaveawesomegaysex,nanowrimoupdate
20 Nov (Or something like that)

Zero more words today. But I did get 2nd place in a spelling bee. Can you spell "procrastination?" Day 18. 25129 words. #nanowrimo
19 Nov

Very unproductive day. 97 more words. Yes, you read that correctly. day 17. 25129 words total. #nanowrimo
18 Nov

1/2-way done! Sure I'm a day late, but I'm looking at at 24 hour write-in this weekend, so it's all good. Day 16. 25032 words.#nanowrimo
17 Nov

Day 15. 21382 words. But not done for the night. The Muse is up and the Sandman's nowhere is sight. #nanowrimo
16 Nov

Nighty-night Twitterverse. Now have written over 100 pages. 21382 words. Day 14. #nanowrimo
15 Nov


Casting for my novel: Simon Baker, Lady Gaga, and Samuel L. Jackson. Day 13. 19529 words. #nanowrimo
13 Nov


Gotta stop going to write-ins where every1's talking. Like going to a meditation session where every1's talking.Day 12.16721 wrds#nanowrimo
12 Nov


Minor character meant to be a red herring & comic relief has turned out to be quite important. Day 11. 16054 words #nanowrimo
12 Nov

Still behind on 10th day. Tomorrow weather's supposed to be bad, so play catch up, I hope. 14358 words. #nanowrimo
11 Nov

I must've gotten abducted by aliens on November 10. No Twitter updates. Nothing. I think it must be aliens. I think I wrote that day but I just didn't tweet about it. The alien anal probe must've been too irritating for me to concentrate on Tweeter updates. Or maybe I had a conversation with God that day. Or Zeus. Or Harry Potter. Something magical, not rational, 'cause, really, any unexplained phenomena must have a magical origin. Otherwise, why would you need God? #philosophicalranttoolongtofitinatweet
10 Nov

Not very productive day. Began to weave a neglected subplot thru-out the story. 8th day. 12040 total words. #nanowrimo
9 Nov

My characters are doing some weird shit. I'll figure them out, I hope. 7th day. 11674 words. #nanowrimo
7 Nov

Zero, zilch, nada, naught, nihil, null, non, nothing, empty set, less than 1 more words today.But not behind.woohoo!Still @ 10046#nanowrimo
6 Nov

Saw no ghosts (or Stephen King characters) @ Stanley Hotel write-in. Very productive 5th day. One day ahead now. 10046 words#nanowrimo
5 Nov

Nighty-night for fourth day. Tomorrow I write in the Stanley Hotel. All work and no play makes... 7174 words. #nanowrimo
5 Nov

Not as productive 3rd day. But hit my target almost on bullseye. 5001 words. #nanowrimo
3 Nov

Fiction better than reality. 3874 words. #election2010 #nanowrimo
2 Nov

1926 words. Done for 1st day. #nanowrimo
1 Nov

I'm nanowrimoing! #nanowrimo
1 Nov