NaNoWriMo
By: Bryant R. Haake, Honors College, Presidential Honors Student, English Major
Within the writing community, many different programs, systems, and help groups have arisen in
order to help authors continue writing their projects. Afterall, writing blocks and procrastination are an
author’s greatest enemies, and when put together, they can be a recipe for disaster. I should know, as both
have plagued me for quite some time now.
I have begun many different writing projects over the course of the past years: science fiction,
fantasy, manuscripts, and more. However, I have still not finished any of them. One of them has well over
100 pages written, but I just can’t seem to actually finish it. That’s when a friend of mine recommended
the NaNoWriMo program to me.
NaNoWriMo is a shortened version of the phrase National Novel Writing Month which began in 1999. The original challenge was to write 50,000 words over the course of the 30 day month of
November. To put this in perspective, a novel can generally be written with 80,000 words, but can
certainly go over or under. Therefore, by the end of this month, 5/8ths of a full, normal novel should be
written, or possibly just a short novel.
Many great novels have been written with only 50,000 words. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the
Galaxy by Douglas Adams comes to mind with roughly 46,000 words (Cunningham). This book has been
given a film adaptation, and is known by many people. And yet, it falls short of the NaNoWriMo goal.
The point? This goal is achievable for a single, great novel, and the content doesn’t need to lose any
substance in order to fit into this mark.
I will be writing a new project in the fantasy genre entitled Krakenland. The chapters will be
released weekly as I write them, and sometimes may come with multiple chapters. This novel will have
themes of pirates (both good and bad), magic, skilled warriors, and a pantheon of monsters and gods who
rule the open seas. You may even recognize some of them, as almost all of the major ones are taken from
various mythologies (think especially of Jörmungandr of Norse myth – what many people may know as
the World Serpent – and the most obvious one: the Kraken).
I am looking forward to writing this novel, and am confident in my ability to make it interesting.
While it may sound more similar to the concept of the popular manga/anime One Piece, I promise that
anything that is similar is only coincidental… mainly because I have not seen or read either the show or
the manga. I hope all of you readers enjoy this process, and I especially hope it inspires some of you who
have projects in mind to begin the process!
Work Cited
Cunningham, Joel. “5 Great Books Too Short for NaNoWriMo – B&N Reads.” Barnes & Noble, 4
December 2013, https://www.barnesandnoble.com/blog/5-great-books-too-short-for-nanowrimo/.
Accessed 31 October 2023.