Opinion: It's time for NaNoWriMo — and reality TV's 'America's Next Great Author'
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National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo (also the name of the 501(c)3 nonprofit), is held annually in November. Every year, hundreds of thousands of writers — 427,653 in 2021 — around the world, from newbies to pros, enter the challenge of writing 50,000 words in 30 days at nanowrimo.org. Some writers begin preparing in September, taking advantage of NaNoWriMo’s weekly curriculum, which covers topics such as developing a story idea, characterization, world building and time management. Other writers — most likely procrastinators like me — wait until mid- to late November. Regardless of when, all the resources are available to writers when they need them, for free.
Grant Faulkner, an Oskaloosa native and the executive director of NaNoWriMo for the past 10 years, considers NaNoWriMo a boot camp in time management and discipline and showing up. “But it's also a rollicking writing party,” he added, “and that's the community part of it, and so we demythologize the notion of a solitary writer.”
For Debbie Downers who can’t imagine rollicking writers, Faulkner told me NaNoWriMo has nearly 1,000 volunteers around the world who organize local writing gatherings that bring people together to write, as well as ways for people to connect online — from groups on Discord and Facebook, to around-the-clock word sprints on Twitter, to forums on nanowrimo.org, which gets nearly 1 million posts yearly on almost every subject imaginable.
Faulkner said people often tell him they love writing during November because they just feel a galvanizing force, as if the world is writing with them. “And if you get on social media,” he added, “#nanowrimo is almost always trending and you really do feel like everybody's writing their novel.”
The power of NaNoWriMo is the creation of stories. Faulkner said he believes that society progresses according to the stories that are allowed and encouraged. “At this moment in history, with banned books on the rise, with portions of our American history denied or forbidden to be taught,” he said, “stories are more important than ever — because stories show us who we are, who we have been, and who we can be.”
He also believes that National Novel Writing Month opens the gates of creativity to everyone in an inviting, inclusive way, with the mantra "Your story matters."
“My optimism in life comes from the fact that stories want to be free,” Faulkner said. “While there are forces that might want to keep them down, stories are cunning, wily, forceful, and persuasive creatures, so they'll always make their way into the world. Our stories won't be denied because they form our truth. As Audre Lorde said, ‘Poetry is the way we help give name to the nameless so it can be thought.’ Stories unearth the very roots of who we are.”
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Faulkner encourages anyone with a desire to write to sign up at the website. Youth as young as kindergarten are also encouraged to take part, at ywp.nanowrimo.org. Children set age-appropriate writing goals, which range from 1,000 to 10,000 to 50,000 words for the month. Approximately 90,000 to 100,000 kids and teens will write novels in 2022. This includes not only NaNoWriMo, but also the year-round Young Writers Program, which has free curriculum and resources aligned with the common core.
That’s NaNoWriMo’s mission in the world, to help as many people as they can write their story.
Faulkner knows a thing or two about writing stories. His work has appeared in dozens of publications, including the New York Times and Writer’s Digest, and his stories have been nominated for the Pushcart prize.
His first book, “Fissures: One Hundred 100-Word Stories,” was released in 2015. Since then, he’s written a collection of essays on creativity, two books on writing, and co-authored a teen writing guide. His latest book of short stories, “All the Comfort Sin Can Provide,” which “delves into the beguiling salve that sin can promise,” includes stories that take place in Iowa.
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Faulkner just completed a craft book, “The Art of Brevity,” that will be out in early 2023. It and "Pep Talks for Writers," he said, tie into his NaNoWriMo role, which is "really helping people see themselves as creators and writers because so many people don't see themselves that way and really trying to empower them and give them the tools to write their story."
About that new reality TV show
As if NaNoWriMo, writing, and a host of other projects don't keep him busy, Faulkner is an executive producer of "America's Next Great Author," "a reality TV show for writers by writers."
Nine or 10 years ago, Faulkner was on a tour of Alaska with Arielle Eckstut and David Henry Sterry, co-founders of The Book Doctors. The were visiting small towns, talking about writing, and Eckstut and Sterry were holding an event called Pitchapalooza where people had one minute to pitch their book. They heard so many amazing stories.
“It kind of showed how there are so many stories out there,” Faulkner said, “but so many stories that get published are only by people who have access to those pathways of publishing.
"So, they were joking around, like, 'Somebody should start a reality show like "American Idol," but for writers.' They'd heard that from a lot of people who had participated and watched their events in the past," Faulkner said. "The long story short is that David had several projects get optioned by Hollywood and so he had a little bit more access and knowledge about how to do that and they just decided, ‘Let's do it. Let's go for it. Let's create a reality TV show.’”
They’re filming a pilot or “sizzle reel” to show networks. Once they get a green light, they’ll go to six cities across America — cities where residents are unlikely to have access to publishing and whose stories are unlikely to be heard — and hold a Pitchapalooza-type event. The winner from each city will be a contestant on the show. All contestants will live together in the same house for 30 days, a la NaNoWriMo, and write their stories.
“So there will be the drama of them living together, but there will also be the drama of them creating together,” Faulkner said. “One thing that's different is that we're looking to make it more of a show of community and creative support. We're not looking to ridicule people or to tear them down or make fun of them.”
He stressed that they want all contestants to be inspirational figures and successful with their writing. They want the show to be inspirational and educational to viewers. “My hope is," Faulkner added, "that they'll (viewers) sit and write a novel with the show — it could maybe even be on air in November — and then we'll also have like a lot of celebrity writer judges.”
Will one of the six cities be in Iowa?
Faulkner doesn’t know yet which cities will be selected, but he did say that the Midwest will be included and that people can travel to any location to pitch.
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They will be looking for people with great stories. But, like any reality television show, contestants must be compelling figures on TV.
“People always ask me, like, well, writers are introverts. They're not gonna film well.” Faulkner had two responses to that. “One, not all writers are introverts. Kwame Alexander's a perfect example. He's the host of our show and a fellow executive producer, and he's far from introverted. He's very much a performer. But, two, we're not casting just for extroverts. We're casting for a total mix of personalities and I, in particular, I love introverts. So I'm going to be compelled by some of those more introverted writers who will have a chance to be on the show.”
What about those Debbie Downers who still believe that writers can't be rollicking and fun?
"There are reality shows about everything under the sun," Faulkner said. "If people are excited by watching people in Britain bake scones, I think we can make writing stories equally exciting."
Rachelle Chase is an opinion columnist at the Des Moines Register. Follow Rachelle at facebook.com/rachelle.chase.author or on Twitter @Rachelle_Chase.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Opinion: Write 50,000 words in November? 427,653 people did in 2021.
