I do think that you misunderstand the term “first draft.” Every novel, every book, has a first draft. Doesn’t matter if the writer is new or if the writer is John Grisham or Edgar Allen Poe, the first cut at the manuscript, ANY manuscript, is a first draft. When you begin your first novel, your first attempt at it will be a first draft. When you write your second novel, your first cut at that one will also be a first draft. Same with subsequent new projects… they’ll all have a first draft.

It’s not a writer’s first-ever attempt to write a novel, as you imply, it’s a writer’s first-pass at ANY given project.

Given that, NaN0WriMo is indeed a “first draft writing contest” (not really a contest at all, you’re only competing with yourself). Every time. Unless you somehow manage to finish it and then write the second draft of that project within the 30 days. But nobody does that.

My point was that first drafts rarely sell. So if the writer’s intention is to write a book that may one day stand a chance at being published, then the month is a productive way to generate a first draft. That first draft is the very best outcome of NaNoWriMo. You really can’t expect more than that from it.

It’s all good if it gets you writing. It’s not if one is kidding themselves about the process. Every completed draft is a good thing, something the writer can treasure. Even if it doesn’t ever get published. Still worthwhile. I wrote six novels before I published one. And I love ‘em all. Because they took me forward.

My objective is to help writers get published. If you believe you read that I’m somehow diminishing work that doesn’t… not my intention. It’s all a process, a stepping stone to moving forward. Whatever that means to you.

However, I guess there are some very delusional people out there.

I’m not sure why you’d use the term ‘National First Draft Writing Month’, either. If you’re going to use this definition, it means that no one has written a novel – ever. No one has ever sat down and written out The Novel on the first try, word-perfect, with no need for editing or re-drafting. So while we’re at it, we may as well get rid of the term ‘novelist’ too, and replace it with something like ‘draftist’, or ‘revisionist’.

I think the point that I’m trying to make is that a novel doesn’t have to be publishable to be referred to as ‘A Novel’. There’s not some magical line that’s crossed between ‘50,000 words of goop’ and ‘novel’; I don’t believe it’s as clear cut as that, though obviously there is a difference.

I suppose my hackles were raised a bit at your proclamation that “There are only two possible camps here.” Um, no, not necessarily. I’m a Serious Writer (TM), and yet I’m doing NaNoWriMo for fun. I’m sure I’m not the only person in this third camp, either. There can be a whole lot more to NaNoWriMo than the two approaches you’ve listed here.

Despite these quibbles, I whole-heartedly agree that you can’t write a publishable novel in 30 days (though I doubt that anyone who seriously believed that was possible is ever going to be disuaded from the idea).

I appreciate the really useful wake up call, and also gives me hope in someday reading the beautiful things writers can come up when and if they are not inhibited by such things as procrastination and deadlines..

I’ve already hit 5499 words and only really put 3 or maybe 4 hours of keyboard time in actually pounding away at word count. And knowing where the story is going to atm (aka Plot point 1) and what that sets up has helped me in other ways like how I write the characters a ton.

<3 all the content and advice on this site and your ebooks that have made this easier.

My intention was always to get your attention and perhaps alter your perspective so that this experience moves you toward a goal that is something more than merely having fun. Maybe it’s me, but working that hard on something and ending up with a pile of goop isn’t much fun, but coming out the other end with a pile of potential and a steepened learning curve… now that’s a good time.

I wish you all well in this month of storytelling bliss. May you feel the powers of story architecture infuse your story with structure and art, and may you end the month with 50K words or more that make you lose sleep because you can’t wait to polish it into something that becomes the fruition of your writing dream.

If you get stuck, I invite you to return here and consult the posts on structure and character. And, to find a buddy and talk it out, that’s often a quick fix.

If nothing else, you’ll discover how damn hard this can be. The more you know about story architecture, the harder it is to kid yourself about what’s working and what isn’t. But if you do know this stuff, even a little, you’re gonna be shocked and delighted at how close you’ll get to the target come November 30.

It begins today. Play hard, it’s the only way to win. Good luck to all!

Remember, a scene that doesn’t do the following (and a novel that doesn’t either) is probably not going to hold the interest of anyone who’s not in the book:

Setup
Obstacle
Action to overcome obstacle
Results of overcoming or not overcoming

Show us the world you imagine, introduce us to your characters, make them real (we only will care about the next step if we love or hate them), throw them into a world of shit, make them figure their way out, and surprise us with how things turn out – how the world you’ve created is different now that we’ve let you tell us this story.

Good luck!

NaNoWriMo proved to me that I could finish a story line. Since doing my first I have the rough drafts done. I went one step further and am taking a class on how to edit. Sorry nothing on the internet really teaches you how to edit, you have to learn from a pro, one on one. So now I work on getting the stories published.

Its a good beginning, but only a beginning.