National Novel Writing Month

Novels are what most people think of when they think of books today. They fill the shelves of public libraries, and even academic libraries such as ours have collections of novels. Famous novelists such as Jane Austen, the Brontës, Leo Tolstoy, George Orwell, Agatha Christie, Terry Prachett, and so many others have made the novel popular, and ensured its continuing success. Novels are written for all ages, in a variety of genres, and are published by both professional houses and by individuals. 

While today reading novels is a respectable pastime, in the past, novels, and novel reading, were derided as a waste of time, and seen as ruinous to people’s health (just as TV often is today). Novelists were therefore at the very least silly, and at the worst, dangerous to youth. Libraries, and librarians, even controlled who had access to novels, whereas today, many librarians actively encourage novel reading. 

As part of the support for novels, and those who write them, National Novel Writing Month is celebrated during November. Throughout the month, novelists and aspiring novelists are encouraged to write 1,667 words a day, so that by the end of the month, they have a draft of 50,000 words. Powering through the first draft like this is designed to help writers to just get the first draft over with, to power through what is often the hardest part of the writing process, to just get something on the page.

Until 2024, National Novel Writing Month was organized by NaNoWriMo, a non-profit organization founded in 1999 to encourage writers. Even though the official NaNoWriMo organization has closed, and the website is no longer active, each November is still an opportunity to write your own novel. There are plenty of great resources out there to support you as you begin writing, so you don’t have to venture into novel writing alone. Even NaNoWriMo’s collection of pep talks, written by famous novelists for aspiring novelists, are still available here, thanks to the internet archive. 

Check out the National Novel Writing Month display on the 3^rd floor to see some books about novel writing, and for a selection of novels from our collection. And check out the excerpts from NaNoWriMo pep talks below for some inspiration!

Gail Carson Levine (author of Ella Enchanted, Fairest, The Two Princess of Bamarre, and among other books), writes, “with all the earnestness I can command, here is the only important piece of advice, which is crucial for any speed of writing, any kind of writing: Do not beat up on yourself. Do not criticize your writing as lousy, inadequate, stupid, or any of the evil epithets that you are used to heaping on yourself. Such self-bashing is never useful. If you indulge in it, your writing doesn’t stand a chance. So when your mind turns on you, turn it back, stamp it down, shut it up, and keep writing.”

V.E. Schwab (author of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, A Darker Shade of Magic, and other titles), writes in her pep talk, “So you’re going to write a story. Not a book. Don’t think of it as anything so formal. You’re just writing down a story. Something that you will have ample time to make better, once it’s done. And I know it’s hard—trust me, I know. Because the moment you start writing it down, you begin to see all the flaws, all the shortcomings, all the things that aren’t perfect. But you’re also writing down everything you need, your raw materials.”

Kristin Cashore (author of Graceling) writes, “Learning to write 50,000 words means learning a whole pile of skills, but they’re learnable skills, and you learn them by writing.”

And finally, in his pep talk, written in his characteristic style, Lemony Snicket (author of The Series of Unfortunate Events), writes, “In short, quit. Writing a novel is a tiny candle in a dark, swirling world. It brings light and warmth and hope to the lucky few who, against insufferable odds and despite a juggernaut of irritations, find themselves in the right place to hold it. Blow it out, so our eyes will not be drawn to its power. Extinguish it so we can get some sleep. I plan to quit writing novels myself, sometime in the next hundred years.”