NaNoWriMo has begun! This is the month for all you reluctant would-be writers to get some words down.
I'm of two minds about NaNoWriMo, which stands for National Novel Writing Month. The goal is to start writing on Nov. 1st and get down 50,000 words by the end of the month. Participation in the national event doesn't win you a prize or publishing contract. But it might help someone who needs to focus and create a writing habit.
What I don't like about NaNoWriMo is the focus on getting words, quantity of words, out. Writing 50k words of crap is just a waste of your time… unless you're doing it purely for the sake of seeing how many words you can spew in 30 days. Without editing. Without proofing or plotting or even doing much work beyond vomiting all over the page. Because tossing out 50k words in 30 days isn't difficult--I can bang out more than 2k in a couple of hours if I really focus--but if those 2k words are crap, I'm just wasting my time. I have to go back and rip them out, shred them, throw them away because I didn't think about my plot, didn't have my characters well developed, didn't know what my story was really about. Or I was just fooling around with my vocabulary lincoln logs.
I suppose if you've done all your prep work--outlined your plot, developed your characters, done your research, figured out the ways and means of your society/world--then, yes, all you need to do is flesh it out. And getting out a first draft in a month should be doable if you've done your prep work to the best of your ability. Of course, best laid plans and all that--I know characters sabotage stories and a tiny plot point suddenly decides to get all up in your face, which might be a better thing than the limp idea you'd thought was so shiny.
What I do like about NaNoWriMo is the ability to get people talking about writing, to get them to try it and really knuckle down. I'm talking about those wannabes who blab about how much they want to write, how much they admire or dislike the current fad/trend, or how much they've always dreamed of being a writer. And what better time than now to be a writer? Anyone can throw their novel up on any number of digital distributors' sites and get stories into fans' hands for a couple of bucks. It's a win-win situation.
Do I recommend you leap into NaNoWriMo? I suppose if you want to test yourself and see how much you can churn out, sure. If you have trouble with writing everyday and need some kind of deadline or focus, then NaNoWriMo might be for you (a goal of 50k by end of the month can be broken down into manageable chunks for easy tracking).
But, if you already have a steady work habit, can finish regularly and get out your 1st draft with reasonable ease, don't need to find a community to bolster your ego and a cheer squad on the sidelines (this helps many timid writers, which I think is great, since writing is a solitary effort, but too many writers start to get distracted and begin writing for the cheerleaders rather than to their own ideas), then I'm not sure you need bother.
Still, lots of people I know--established and new writers--leap into this every year. So, happy trails to all participants! I just think you should be focusing on QUALITY rather than quantity, but I'm an editor, so I'm ALWAYS looking for Better Writing even when I'm not doing it (do as I say, not as I do *winkwink*).