As promoted on its Web site, “National Novel Writing Month is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing. Participants begin writing November 1. The goal is to write a 175-page (50,000-word) novel by midnight, November 30.” That’s a real challenge for any writer.
Of the 26 writers here taking the challenge, fourteen actually crossed the finish line. The youngest winner was “samwriterchick” from Guam, who joined as a 13 year old and wrote 50,116 words. Other student winners included Saipan Southern High School students Roseanna Sablan (50,211) and Allison Madamba (51,015). Valiant efforts were made by SSHS student Anna Rose Deleon Guerrero (27, 723 words) and Guam college student “Twerksie” (13,053). On a side note, elementary school students from Brilliant Star School and Kagman Elementary School participated in the Young Writers Program, but their word counts are not included in this total.
The challenge seemed easy for some area writers. Leo Babauta, father of six and professional writer on Guam, wrote the most words in the Elsewhere::Micronesia region, writing a total of 108,754 words. He had participated and won once before, but set a personal goal of 100,000 words as a bigger challenge. “Ekatlyte,” another Guam writer and, coincidentally a mother of six, wrote the second most words (107,139). Third place in the total words written went to Saipan writer Jonathan Ulrich (92,855), a teacher at Kagman Elementary School.
Other writers who won found the challenge more difficult. Guam writer Shannon Giel, who participates as “Sea Phoenix”, had taken the novel writing challenge before, without success. “I tried participating last year and fell glaringly short at about 6k words, before giving up,” she said. This year, she made the goal (52,594) and attributed her better performance to “the higher level of group participation…as well as the wonderful software…recommended.”
Guam writer “applejuicebri” also won (50,262), but said he was exhausted two weeks into the month-long challenge. “My family was supportive, even though I don’t think they fully understood what was driving me to sit on the couch in the living room at all hours of the night with my brow furrowed and fingers wearing themselves down to bloody nubs,” Applejuicebri said.
This was the second year that Micronesia had an official region participating in NaNoWriMo, as the National Novel Writing Month is called. Last year, the region had only two official winners), both of whom participated and won again this year — Joe Race (50,185) and Jane Mack (53,358). Jane Mack also acts as the Municipal Liaison for the region, sending out pep talks, moderating the regional on-line forum, and setting up write-ins.
“I loved the participation of so many writers this year,” Mack said. “When you write, you’re alone, in a world built in your mind. It’s a great process, but it’s difficult to share the excitement and joy of writing. That’s why NaNoWriMo is such a wonderful experience, because so many other people are doing exactly what you are doing, but each individually. It’s something like being a two-year old engaged in parallel play!”
There was a lot of writing parallel play around the world this past November! The 26 writers from Saipan and Guam joined 167,330 writers from around the world who signed up for the challenge. Those who actually participated wrote a collective 2,147,483,647 words (yes that more than two billion words!).
What will become of all those novels? This is the eleventh year that NaNoWriMo has conducted the challenge, and each year the participation level has grown. Some past novelists have published their NaNo novels, including New York Times number one bestseller, Sara Gruen, who wrote WATER FOR ELEPHANTS; Jon F. Merz who wrote THE DESTRUCTOR (one of his Lawson Vampire novels); and NYT and USA Today bestseller Lani Diane Rich, who wrote the romantic comedies MAYBE BABY and WISH YOU WERE HERE, and women’s fiction TIME OFF FOR GOOD BEHAVIOR.
As for the novels written by our area writers, the plans are varied. “I think it will join my four other novels and three play scripts in a drawer,” Jane Mack said, “until I have time to edit, which may be in about ten years, if I ever retire.” Lis Swain, a teacher at Saipan’s Brilliant Star School, and first time winner (50,083) is looking forward to immediately editing her novel. “In the next few months, I plan to tackle editing and rewriting. As a teacher, it’s a good lesson for me to put everything I try to teach my students about writing into practice. My students have become my best editors! Eventually I’d love to get it published, but I’m taking it one step at a time,” she said. Joe Race plans to edit and self-publish, as he has done with his prior NaNo novel and his other non-NaNo novels. The Guam writers are still planning their TGIO (thank goodness it’s over) party, so plans for their novels are on hold!
One last look at the challenge results and statistics:
Guam writers:
Leo Babauta: 108,754
Ekatlyte: 107,139
Cjcariño: 57,230
Shannon Biel: 52,594
Applejuicebri: 50,252
Samwriterchick: 50,116
Marie/disaster: 50,074
Itchy671: 17,366
Twerksie: 13,053
Maddiemaer: 3,842
Pandaluv: 1,638
Tenshi-bozu: 1,180
T_Tell: 529
Saipan writers:
Jonathan Ulrich: 92,855
Jane Mack: 53,358
Allison Madamba: 51,015
Roseanna Sablan: 50,211
Joe Race: 50,185
Lis Swain: 50,083
Angie Wheat: 48,519
Anna Rose DLG: 27,723
Darkangel: 1,969
Matt Wheat: 1,762
Undisclosed location, but in the region:
Aomiles: 50,329
Rice: 7,003
Ahimes: 2,084
Cl832: 001 (yes, just one word!)
Regional writers wrote an average of 38,431 words each; their average word count came in 25th place out of 484 regions participating around the world. Nearly 54 percent of those who accepted the challenge crossed the finish line and wrote novels of 50,000 words or more.
The next writing challenge —Script Frenzy in April. Who wants to write a movie script or stage play?
