Everyone’s a winner
BY LEAH RAYTHIS year’s National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) came to an end at 11:59:59pm on Nov 30. The winners of the annual contest? Everyone who managed to write 50,000 words or more of a novel in only a month. Although there is no actual prize involved, there’s plenty of glory (within the WriMo community, at least), plus the huge personal satisfaction of achieving the goal.
“It’s great to have wonderful dreams,” says Mabel Teoh, “but sometimes, realising them is what makes dreams worth having in the first place.” Her novel, The Home of the Fallen, made it to a comfortable 53,000 words before the close of the contest, and there is more to come.
“I gave the story a little twist in the end, to give me a chance to write a saga!”
Teoh adds that NaNoWriMo taught her that “writer’s block is only in the mind” . She thinks “a writer should always have supportive people around her. To write well, you can choose to be a hermit (or not), but you definitely need moral support and that’s where fellow NaNoers come in.”
Another winner, Chin Chet Mooi, found that she hadn’t even gotten to the main story of her Glutton Square, when she reached 50,707 words. Instead, she wrote pages upon pages of back story, which doesn’t worry her.
“We all need the back story to the main story so we know our characters really well. Maybe next year, I’ll finally get to the main story.”
NaNoWriMo has taught Chin to accept imperfections. “I learned a new phrase, which is, ‘I’ll fix it later!’ The important thing is to get the story out.”
She encourages other aspiring writers to do NaNoWriMo “to bust the stupid myth that to be an author, your writing must come out perfect the first time you write it. Rubbish! Just keep on writing.”
Mellisa Fung Yizhen’s Wandering Mist: Light Sleeper cruised past the 60,000-word mark and the story’s not over yet. Like Chin, Fung, aka Glass Charm, says NaNoWriMo taught her “it’s okay not to be perfect in your writing; sometimes you should just focus on completion. Not only does it serve as a healthy exercise to just write, write and write, but it is also a great opportunity to meet and interact with other participants.”
It isn’t necessary to reach the 50K goal to enjoy NaNoWriMo, as Low Pui Yee knows. Her book, Dragon Girl: Birth, only topped 15,000 words, and she’s not sure she can sustain the story to a full 50K words, no matter how much time she has. Instead, she intends to start another NaNo on her own in December.
NaNoWriMo has taught Low the importance of doing the work, not just dreaming about it.
“No matter what idea you have, even when it’s a really good one and you’re sure it’s going to be on the New York Times bestseller list, you have to write it down. I always knew that, but NaNoWriMo helped me to actually do it.”
Jaymee Goh, aka Jha Meia, found that her final word count depended on which software did the counting. Still, she passed the 50K mark. “And this year, I actually finished the story. I’m so proud of myself!”
Her take on NaNoWriMo is slightly more prosaic than the others’: “One is never quite alone.” But NaNoWriMo did not change her life. “It’s just fun.”
Lim Kok Leong, aka Andy Lim, never expected to reach 50,000 words of The Time Stopper this year. He only signed up for NaNoWriMo two weeks in, so he’s pleased to have reached 10,009 words, and the half-way point in his story.
“I’m going to try to complete it by the end of February next year. I’ll expand the plot and throw in a couple of subplots,” says Lim, who managed to “stretch my perception of writing fiction and push myself to the limit, although my well of imagination is frequently blocked by boulders and hence, is very shallow.”
Tiara Shafiq reached 53,603 words and the end of her story, The Hot & Gorgeous Club, although the ending was rather rushed. “At least I know what is supposed to happen, which is good, considering that my last year’s NaNo book was 50K of back story and nothing else!”
If she’s going to revise her book, she wants the help of a good editor, one who should be “gentle on me, but firm on my novel. Does anybody have any recommendations?”
NaNoWriMo offers “the opportunity to participate in something this insane with 40,000 other loons,” Tiara says.
“There aren’t many opportunities to set aside time to write a novel and have other people check on you because they’re doing it, too.” To anyone considering doing it next year, she adds, “Take this chance – it’s completely worth it!”
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