Some of the links in this article contain anti-high word count feelings. Click with caution, high word count Wrimos.

In the NaNo community, the term “overachiever” has come to mean those who exceed the 50,000 word goal in November. Some people who identify with this term go on to write a few thousand more, while others write a few hundred thousand more (with one or two going for the elusive million). With people writing so much, there are those with lower word counts who feel bad because their counts are smaller or call these high word counters out for cheating or whine because it’s only day eight and how are some people at 50k already? Why, just this week I got my first ever cheating accusation [anti-high word count] from a poster who’s known for making attacking posts. Three people in that thread have seen me write in person, so I’m just gonna let that roll off my back like a Swiss duck.

But has the anti-overachiever attitude always existed? Yes, but not quite in the same way.

I’ve been around NaNo since 2002 (as long as the forums existed), and I struggled for the first few years, writing over half the book in the last week my first year to win. The (admittedly far fewer then, though the word counter did go up only to 200,000 words) people with high word counts astounded me, but they were motivating. Maybe I could write that much one day.

There wasn’t a dedicated thread (that I can find, anyway) for people intentionally aiming above the 50k goal, no matter what their end goal, until 2008. Yes, there were threads for specific word count goals above 50k such as for those aiming for 100k, but there was no unified thread where anyone shooting for a goal over 50k was welcome. The 2009 thread is lost to the land of deleted webpages, but considering the 2010 thread is called Overachievers III, there’s a 2008 thread for those increasing their word goal (both started by tiakall), and I remember posting in such a thread in the first year I wrote far over 50k, it’s a safe bet a thread existed in 2009 as well, and the term overachiever appears to be a self-identified term adopted by the overachievers.

I can’t dig through the 2008 thread since the Wayback Machine didn’t archive it, but we can now safely say the term “overachiever” dates back to at least 2009. [Update: At least 2005, actually as syaffolee pointed out--jonzzing refers to the folks going for over 50k as overachievers. Of course, this term might not have been a commonly used term until 2009.]

Okay, enough about the past. Let’s go to the present.

The overachiever thread still exists and has grown by leaps and bounds as more people decide to go for more than 50k or for 50k in less than thirty days. A Wrimo who chooses to overachieve may be inspired by us or have a book that’s going to be long or have two ideas. And of course the whining about high word counts has increased, but that’s partly (mostly?) because of more people showing up to do NaNo. Maybe I’m just fortunate to only associate with awesome people, but I haven’t gotten any flack about writing a lot until this year when someone called me out specifically, linked earlier. Some of my other overachieving friends–no, most of them–have. And that’s saying a lot.

Lately there’s been talk about changing the term overachiever to something friendlier. Words have meaning, after all, and the term overachiever might imply that those aiming for 50k or under are underachieving. This isn’t the case at all. I haven’t seen a single overachiever make someone with a lower word count feel bad; all word counts are worthy because those are words that weren’t there before. And a few folks aiming for far above 50k (Zette, for one, who has written far over 50k a year for years) have rejected the term overachiever because of what it implies. But here’s the thing: the flack isn’t necessarily against the term overachiever itself. Some of us who exceed 50,000 words and therefore have to start wtih a high word count do post elsewhere. I do, though I post less as the month thanks to being busy with writing and non-NaNo things.

So what about a new name, as @mattkinsi and @chomskyrabbit were discussing last night on Twitter? It’s a well-intentioned debate, and Tiakall and Cosmam and Raquelin and Chomsky and Quix [related links on the overachiever term] have already beaten me to the post. But no matter what we call ourselves, we as a group (and honestly, just about anyone ahead of quota) will get negative reactions outside the overachiever thread. Changing the name won’t make a significant difference because such changes take time to make their way through and that change won’t affect the reactions from Wrimos who are behind or who don’t like the high word counts.

One thing to remember in all this: NaNo is what YOU make of it, no matter your word count. Someone else’s word count doesn’t make your word count any less valid or any less of an accomplishment.

And now I figure out how to work these 800+ words into my novel.

This was a reply to a forum post discussing the possibility of finishing NaNoWriMo’s 50,000 words in 12 hours. Since I finished it in 24 hours last year and plan on trying again this year, I have a lot of thoughts on this subject, and as a result my reply got quite long.

I finished 50,000 words in the first 24 hours last year (23 hours 53 minutes if you want to be picky). It was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done, and I’ve done some hard things. Teach middle school, for one.

Here’s the stats spreadsheet, if you’re curious. [Added note: I forgot this thing existed until 7am, hence why my stats don't start until then.]

I plan to attempt repeating this on Thursday. A few things:

This really did take the full 24 hours. I lost my max writing speed the first three hours thanks to an in-person kickoff party and for a few hours in the afternoon thanks to tutoring a student. The latter will occur again this year. If I didn’t write about 800 words on Dropbox on the bus that afternoon I wouldn’t have finished.

The hard part is, as people have pointed out, writing nonstop. It’s exhausting, both physically and mentally. It’s a bit emotionally exhausting as well, but that didn’t kick in until the second for me. If I really push myself and write nonstop, I can write 4k an hour–but then I need a break at the end of that hour to relax my body and mind. Now imagine doing that for 24 hours straight. Imagine doing that with little to no sleep (did I mention I slept half an hour–two fifteen-minute naps–during the whole first day?). You’re probably going to be drinking a lot of caffeine as well if you partake. You’ll need to stop for food unless you’re really good at suppressing your stomach growling. You’ll need to get up to go to the bathroom. You may have to get up to take of other incidental things–or if you’re like me and you schedule small things on the first day, you’ll have to take care of those.

All that said, your consistent writing pace is going to be significantly lower than what’s needed to write 50k in 12 hours–4167 words/hour if you’re curious, meaning I could theoretically do it if the nonstop issue weren’t a factor. I can consistently write 3k-3500 words per full writing hour if going for something ridiculous like 50k in a day. (There’s an excerpt of last year’s 50k day novel on my profile under last year’s novel if you’re curious of what such a thing looks like for me.) The 4k hours are usually one-offs. And 5k hours are rare even outside 50k day/weekend attempts.

So that brings up the big question: Why do this in the first place? Everyone’s reasons are different, but I look at it this way: why do some folks climb Mount Everest or hike the entire Appalachian Trail in one go? The answer is often “Because it’s there”. There’s a certain thrill that comes out of these things as well, opening one’s mind to new adventures. There’s a saying some of us who go far beyond the traditional 50k go by: Once you overachieve, you don’t go back. There’s a thrill that comes out of the deadline and creating more and more story more and more quickly that makes the writing and community even more enjoyable. Some of us desire that thrill and seize the feeling that comes out of creating lots of story quickly, which drives us to write more.

But if that’s not what makes NaNo enjoyable for you, figure out what does, and hold on to that feeling. And most of all, keep on writing.

If you follow NaNoWriMo on Facebook or Twitter (or if you read the NaNo Breaking News recently), you might have heard about how The Office of Letters and Light, NaNo’s parent nonprofit organization, is in the running for a share of $5,000,000 from Chase Community Giving. The top vote-getter gets $250,000, which is a significant chunk of OLL’s entire yearly budget. It would do wonders for NaNo, Camp NaNo, and the Young Writers Program, not to mention their financial security and future.

Right now OLL is in 19th place, which would net them $50,000. They need YOUR help to soar higher in the rankings and get more money, especially since past recipients of a Chase Community Giving grant aren’t eligible for future ones.

NaNo and OLL’s other events have changed so many lives, including mine. A grant of this size would give OLL the funds to change even more.

You can vote for OLL in two ways:

1) Log onto Facebook and vote for OLL. You have to allow the app, but you can tell the app to show anything it publishes to just you if that’s a concern. The higher OLL moves up in the leaderboard, the more money they get, starting at $10,000 for #196 (which they’ve already passed) and topping out at $250,000 for the top vote-getter. They need votes to get that money, and every vote counts here.

You get two votes to use at Facebook, but you can’t use both of them on the same charity. However, you can earn a bonus vote to use on OLL, but we’ll get to that in a minute.

2) If you’re a Chase customer, you can vote for OLL at chasegiving.com. You get two votes to use on two different charities. Guess what? If you’re a Facebook user and a Chase customer, you can vote twice: once on Facebook and once on chasegiving.com.

If you voted through Facebook and used both of your votes, you can earn a bonus vote! Share the contest on Facebook or Twitter or email with your referral link (and you will, won’t you?), and if someone comes to the app through your link and votes, you get an extra vote. This extra vote is a bonus vote that you can use on any charity you like, including OLL. Congratulations, you just voted for OLL twice with very little effort.

Tell your friends. Tell your casual acquaintances. Tell your enemies! Actually, reconsider that last part; they may vote for someone above us on the leaderboard…

If you don’t use Facebook, you can still share the link above and tell your friends via email or Twitter or Google+ or any other site. Please do!

Voting ends on the 19th, so if NaNo has changed your life in any way, even a little, get out there and vote!

I had an idea for a second book, but when the time came to sit down and write it, the idea wasn’t grabbing me at all. This meant shelving the idea for now. Maybe I’ll write it later; maybe I won’t. Who knows? But it’s not getting written right now.

This left me with a few more ideas: something cracktastic about unicorns (because unicorns are awesome), the semisecret idea that’s definitely getting written next year, and what two other Wrimos in my region are doing: adapting Jonathan Coulton songs as novels. Of course I probably wouldn’t be able to do anything with the book afterward, but that’s not why I’m writing it. And yes, this means that technically I am writing fanfiction. For a song. Which is probably really nerdy, especially when you consider that the musician sings about nerdy things.

Anyway, the song is “Dissolve from JoCo’s newest album (which you give a listen, by the way). Now I have to figure out exactly what happens to make everything awful–in other words, a plot.

Fun side note: This story, like the one I wrote on the first, is told in the first person with a male protagonist. Both of these are rare for me, but the decision was such a snap judgment that I rolled with it.

Word count: 50,004 words

Yes, you read that correctly.

Awhile back a few folks at the NaNo forums (*cough*cosmam*cough*) talked me into doing a 50k day one. I accepted this challenge and took it today. And well… Let this Google doc of my progress tell you how I did (spreadsheet also courtesy of cosmam). Note that I was significantly behind for most of the day but apparently rule at catching up.

I wrote only 3k at the midnight kickoff at my place. The last folks left at 3am, and the party was lots of fun–we had ten people show up! David’s evil scheme to put me behind on 50k day worked, but it didn’t put me down. As soon as everyone left and I cleaned up the stuff that was actual mess I went to my room and started writing and caffeinating. I took a couple of 15-minute power naps throughout the day but otherwise stayed up all night, and I used Dropbox to write nearly 1k on my way to and from tutoring today. This was probably the vital 1k that saved me, as I finished with barely ten minutes to go.

And then I had a celebratory drink; if I hadn’t succeeded it would have remained untouched until December.

Oh, and the best part? I hit THE END on the book too.

#50kkillmenow? #50kkilledit.

But now I sleep since I haven’t done much of that over the last few days. Mmmm, sleep.

I did all the things today. Well, except actual work, but my schedule is flexible enough that I can do it over the rest of the week. I can deal with that, especially since my brain will need a break from massive amounts of writing after day one. Moderate amounts of writing will have to do.

There were things I would have liked to finish before the first, like journalling and writing other pep talks, but they’re things I can do later. I don’t have to have my pep talk for the ninth ready right now, though it would certainly be nice. And I don’t have to have my Night of Writing Dangerously donor pep talks ready yet. But the laundry’s done and I have clean clothes and I have food ready beyond the frozen dinners that I’ll probably be eating tomorrow and I have my Adopt a Day pep talk for the day after tomorrow and I’ve paired all the newbies and mentors and I’ve sent a friend something she needed that I had and I’ve done my first @NaNoWordSprints session and I haven’t died. Yet.

And I’m hosting a midnight kickoff party at my place, and ten people have already said they were coming. This includes the friend and me who planned it. Holy wow.

All things considered, I think I’m in pretty good shape. As the sign one of my co-MLs got me yesterday says, “Keep calm and carry on.”

I think I can handle that.

NaNo starts in twenty-four hours.

The madness is nigh.

Now to finish things before I sleep.

That is all.

The problem with my to-do list is that there are lot of things that keep getting added back. Pairing newbies with mentors? Sure, I can be done with that for about ten minutes, but over the last few days newbies have been paired up faster than I can match them, and we’re running short on mentors. I can add events to the calendar and map, but more get added. I can journal, but more things keep happening.

But there are things with definite deadlines, like my pep talk for Adopt a Day on November 2nd and putting prompts into my Twitter client to be sent out for the @nanolanta account and doing laundry. I might not like pants, but it’s cold out now and I think the other MLs at least would notice if I wore the same ones two days in a row. Think I could wear sweats to the kickoffs tomorrow?

Still, two more days until NaNo. Sunday, then Monday, then the madness begins. Let’s do this.