The Write Stuff
There is only one number that matters: 50,000. Not one word less will do. Fifty thousand divides winners from losers, bragging rights from bereavement, and novelists from normal, everyday people.
Fifty thousand divides insanity from sanity.
November is National Novel Writing Month, a literary escapade where participants try to write 50,000 words of fiction and earn the title of Novelist. This year, more than 200,000 people on all seven continents tackled the challenge, and some 37,000 emerged victorious – often as travel-stained and weary as their characters.
Together, they produced almost 3 billion words. Chicago-area writers contributed close to 37 million of them.
At the Niles Public Library, a group of around 20 would-be novelists met on the night of Nov. 1. Among them were 22-year-old Angelica Badilla, who worked at a health care startup; unemployed 21-year-old Natalia Maridakis; and Sara Stoker, a caregiver and Sudoku writer.
They started out so hopeful.
"I think I have enough to flesh it out," said Badilla, who wrote 1,100 words of her fan fiction based on the Jonas Brothers within the first few hours of the contest.
Stoker, who finished 50,000 words in both 2006 and 2007, proudly displayed her notebook with a scene by scene outline of her murder-mystery novel set in "The Museum of Everything Else" in downtown Chicago.
Maridakis was already beyond the daily quota that NaNoWriMo recommends – 1667 words a day. She knew the outline of her children’s fantasy novel, the story of a guardian named Emmeline and her quest to retrieve magical stones stolen by a witch.
After meeting for the first of three “write-ins,” where contestants gather to offer literary advice, commiserate and write fiendishly, the authors headed home. By 10:30 p.m. on Nov. 30, one of them would complete 100,000 words, one would admit defeat just shy of 30,000 words, and one would stand a mere 5,000 words away from the title of Novelist.
The Writers Guild
They got into position.
Badilla stretched out on her blue comforter with a bag of Reese’s Pieces, one of “The Hot Zone” novels by Carly Phillips, note cards, a binder full of ideas and her laptop.
While her sisters blasted the TV in the other room, Maridakis retreated to her bed with an ancient HP laptop and opened up the red and orange screen of Liquid Story Binder, a text organization tool that allows the user to write and reorganize scenes. Pens and paper were already strategically placed around the house – next to the bed, by the couch, in the bathroom – so that she would never lose an idea.
Stoker also took her laptop and sat on her bed. Nearby were her two gerbils (Mike and Ike), four hermit crabs in a 50 gallon tank, chirping crickets and a tarantula named Miss Rosey.
They began to write.
And write.
And write.
Their plots began to change. By the third day, Badilla changed her novel’s title from “Overboard,” inspired by the Justin Bieber song, to “Second Chances.” Background characters came into the foreground. Characters took on lives of their own.
“I know who they are,” Maridakis said. “But sometimes they surprise me.”
Two of her main characters fell in love, an unplanned diversion from her outline. “It just happened around 10 days in.”
Others saw characters die. “I ended up having three murders,” Stoker said. “As long as they aren’t my main characters, it’s fine.”
Maridakis, meanwhile, decided to kill off her magical protagonist to make a realistic ending. “It wouldn’t work if she survived,” she said. “I guess people got fed up with happily ever after.”
Halfway through the month, all three writers were still on track. Stoker had 24,721 words, Badilla had 21,655 and Maridakis had 39,865.
“I’m doing good,” she said at the Nov. 15 write-in at the library, despite being the only one ahead of schedule. “I’m just not doing that good.”
Badilla, who has written short fan fiction stories since her sophomore year in high school, made time to fit more writing into her schedule. “I’ve stopped going on Facebook. I’ve stopped watching my shows on TV. I’ve stopped everything. I’m still behind.”
She bounced ideas off the other writers in the room.
“Do you ever want to make up words while you’re writing? I really want to use the word ‘soggyiffying.’ Like ‘soggyiffying cereal.’”
“Who ever said that ‘green’ has to be an adjective?” Stoker replied.
After an intense discussion of the merits of “Harry Potter” and “Twilight” and a brief foray into the world of Farmville on Facebook, the writers returned home with 15 more days to reach the magic number: 50,000.
A Cast of Characters
Maridakis, Stoker and Badilla were the only participants to come to all three of the Niles Public Library’s write-ins, though others with unique stories passed through as well.
There was Susan Hernandez, a Niles resident and self-published poet who turned to the library for solace. “I love words,” she said. “I mean, I love words.”
Hernandez’s son, sick with a heart malformation, encouraged her to take up the NaNoWriMo challenge as an escape. She planned to write either an adventure story or a romance.
“Naughty’s always fun,” Hernandez said. “We live such responsible lives all the time.”
By Nov. 15, however, her son was sicker than ever. He was partially blind from a parasite in his eye and used a cane. “He might die,” she said. The constant trips to the doctor took their toll, and Hernandez walked away from the competition.
Marge Coleman, 53, used the month of November to write her 93-year-old parents’ history. Her father returned to the U.S. from Poland when he was 18, then went off to fight Hitler in a Polish speaking platoon. Her mother, the 11th of 13 children, worked in a factory while the men were gone.
“I think every immigrant has a story like this, and I think that people forget it,” Coleman said.
She told her story in 20,178 words. “I wanted something manageable for the family,” she said, adding that she hoped her children and nephews would read it.
Barbara Binns, a four-time NaNoWriMo competitor, attended two of the write-ins. Binns said she finished her 50,000 words by shutting off the inner-editor, at least for the first draft. West Side Books printed her 2008 NaNoWriMo novel, “Pull,” making Binns one of the 66 Wrimo authors that have been published since the competition began in 1999, according to the NaNoWriMo website.
One of the NaNoWriMo organizers, reference librarian Darlene Fox, said she thought the write-ins this year were vastly improved from the two under-attended events last year. “They brought in the 20-somethings. It’s hard to get that age group into the library.” Next year she and co-organizer Donna Block plan to host one event each week.
Turning the Final Pages
On Nov. 24 Lemony Snicket, author of the popular “A Series of Unfortunate Events” books, sent a pep talk to Wrimos via email: “Give up your novel, and join the crowd. Think of all the things you could do with your time instead of participating in a noble and storied art form. There are things in your cupboards that likely need to be moved around.”
Stoker found other things to do with her time. The heavy responsibilities of caring for her mother and planning a Thanksgiving feast distracted her, but she admitted that those were just excuses – she had run out of things to write. She reached 29,817 words about the mysterious murders in the museum, but went no further.
“To create something out of nothing is always difficult,” she said, comparing this year’s NaNoWriMo to earlier attempts.
Maridakis, who struggled with writing the action in her fantasy, wouldn’t let herself see the new Harry Potter movie until she reached the 50,000 mark. She, Stoker and Badilla were also members of the 30 person Team Chicago in regional word wars, where NaNoWriMo regions compete to write the most words.
During a word war group sprint, where Wrimos write furiously for a designated period of time in a chat room, Maridakis reached her goal. “When I finished, it was so utterly overwhelming,” she said.
“I don’t think I’ve heard congratulations that many times, even when I graduated from high school. I couldn’t wipe the smile off my face.” She went on to write around 120,000 words about Emmeline’s quest around the globe to retrieve the magical stones that govern human life.
In contrast, a severe case of writer’s block kept Badilla’s fan fiction at 24,100 words for four days. Once she started writing again, she continued posting chapters to her blog for friends to read.
“I have a friend I send it to, and she’ll tell me if it’s crap. Or she’ll tell me to put it in, because it’s words.”
By the end of the last write-in on Nov. 30, Badilla had written around 38,000 words. She posted on her Twitter that she didn’t think she’d be able to finish another 12,000 in the coming hours.
Messages from friends and new fans started piling up. Don’t stop, they said. We want to read more! Inspired, Badilla wrote interior monologues for three of her characters. At 11:50, Badilla crossed the 50,000 mark and validated her novel through the NaNoWriMo website: officially a novelist.
Badilla said that being accountable to readers was the main motivation for writing every day. “I felt like I had someone that really believed in me more than I believed in me,” she said.
Expectations Fulfilled
“Even with all the stress, I still loved it,” said Badilla, now the proud author of her first chaptered work. In contrast to writing one-chapter fan fiction pieces for the web, the NaNoWriMo experience helped her see writing professionally as a career option. “Living in a world that you created really appeals to me,” she said.
The write-ins at the Niles Public Library and the Borders in Schaumburg also introduced her to new people to bounce ideas off of. “It makes the whole writing process a better experience.”
On Dec. 1, Badilla was already thinking of a sequel to her fan fiction. “It was strange not to have to force myself to write today,” she said.
Maridakis, who said she is prone to abandoning projects halfway through and was worried she would “lose steam after the first week,” also plans to write another novel next year. “I didn’t expect myself to write 100,000 words. I didn’t expect to write 50,000 words.”
“Part of me wants to hide it,” she added. “Part of me wants to show it to everyone.”
Having attempted unsuccessfully to create a novel before, Maridakis joined NaNoWriMo for motivation and to have a community of writers that understood the difficulties of writing. “My family and friends have a tendency to dismiss my writing endeavors,” she said. “So it was a pleasant change.”
Maridakis noted that her father did not know about the NaNoWriMo challenge. “He thinks fantasy will keep me from growing up,” she said.
Stoker said that she too, like a fool, will be back for NaNoWriMo in 2011.
“Yes, I failed. This year. I haven't always failed, and I have this eternal hope of achieving success again someday. In the meantime, I will pick up where I've left off and continue plodding forward until I type the words, ‘The End.’”
