What counts in NaNoWriMo?
I have heard a huge range of perspectives about what “counts” for NaNoWriMo. Some people only count words that are going into a brand new novel. Some people count rewrites and edits. Some people count plotting and planning. Some people count school work or words written for other projects. Some people count every word that has come out of their fingers and onto the page even if the words are “I don’t know what to write.”
There is no NaNoWriMo police that will come to your door if you count gibberish words, or even make up your word count. It used to be that you needed to copy and paste your text into the NaNo site and they counted your words, but these days you just need to put in a number.
So, how do you decide for yourself what your parameters are?
How do you decide what counts for NaNoWriMo?
To me, deciding which words and writing to count toward your NaNo goal is pretty personal. We all have different reasons for doing NaNo, different ways of working, and different kinds of projects to work on (shout out to those NaNo rebels out there!).
I think what you decide about what to count depends on why you are doing NaNoWriMo in the first place. So, why are you doing NaNoWriMo?
If your main goal is to finish a novel, it makes sense to only count words that will end up in that novel. If your main goal is building a writing community, you might want to count everything you write during sprints with a group, whether those words are a novel, a blog post, or the ramblings of your brain. If your reason for doing NaNo is to build a daily writing habit, maybe it’s more important to count whatever words you write than to be persnickety about which words are “usable.”
How I am deciding what counts for me
Listen, y’all. I have felt blocked. It’s been days since I have felt like I was “in” my story. I have been writing, but honestly, I am not sure any of these words even count, because they are more thoughts about writing and how it’s going than they are words that are going to make it into the novel.
But maybe this is an important reminder. Maybe these words are even more important than the story itself, because they are helping me think about my process, helping me think about my attitudes and beliefs that are holding me back. Maybe in the long run, this will help me even more than moving forward in this one book. Because in the long game, I want to be writing much more than just this novel. I am trying to develop consistency, learn my process and establish a habit that will support me for the next book and the next.
I made the decision at the beginning of this quarter and also at the beginning of NaNo that I wasn’t going to split hairs over which words were “usable” and which were not. Everything I write is fodder, so it all goes on the heap of words that make up my NaNoWriMo word count.
It’s hard to keep that in perspective when I feel like I am not moving forward as quickly as I had hoped in this story.
So I need to keep reminding myself that the purpose here (for me) is not necessarily to move forward in the story. It is to show up and I am showing up.
I also know that I know the first day or two I show up after a break are difficult, and a lot of times I need to sideways write myself back into the story, by writing about what’s happening in my life or other things that are on my mind.
One thing I have learned about my process is that I need to just let the gates open and allow whatever writing needs to come out to come out. It might be a blog post, a poem, or the novel I’m working on, but I need to let myself write it all out so that I can get into that state of flow.
I will take the ideas and the words as they come, and count them all equally and be grateful that anything is coming out at all.
I need to keep telling myself that this is a time of year where everything goes within. The trees are dormant. The bears are hibernating. It’s like a long exhale.
So, if I need moments of introspection, journaling, or processing to get to the point where the novel can make its way out, I will count those words as just as important as the words that do ultimately make it into the novel. For me, it’s all part of the process.
Even these words will count.
How do you decide? Do you let yourself count plotting, or editing? Do you count blog posts or letting your imagination wander into possible scenes?
Are there any NaNo Rebels out there? How are you rebelling?
Stats for Days 16-18
Progress:
Day 16 Word Count: 0
Day 17 Word Count: 719
Day 18 Word Count: 3005
Total Word Count: 20064
Where I Planned to Be: 32000
1667 words per day: 30006