Why I'm asking published authors, agents and editors to be supportive about #NaNoWriMo - a thread

Every year without fail I see something, a tweet, a blog, an article in a national newspaper, the gist of which seems to be 'oh no not November again - all of those people thinking they can write. All of those manuscripts flooding agents' offices! Please just don't!'

Or the tone is a bit more jokey - something like, 'yeah sure let's write a novel! Let's all splurge 50k words and self publish, or send it to every publisher we can find online! Get your friend/granny/colleague/pet to join in too! The world needs your brain farts!'

Even occasionally a 'serious' piece, talking about how poor writing undermines good writing, how the next Booker winner might get lost in the pile because of all the #NaNoWriMo dross that's been sent in - advice to 'proper' authors: don't send in December! Wait till next year!

Every year. Every year I get upset by it, occasionally really angry (and it takes a LOT to get me angry, normally I'm really a very placid, easy-going sort). This year I think I'm going to get a bit bolshy about it because with everything else that's going on, I've had enough.

So yes, if you think #NaNoWriMo is a bad thing, I'm asking you politely to keep your opinion to yourself for the following reasons:

1. Writing is good for people's mental health, something widely acknowledged. It gives us a break from the real world, allows us to explore our surroundings and ourselves, allows us to escape, and goodness knows we all need a bit of that right now.

2. Over the past 21 years @NaNoWriMo (not for profit, completely free for all participants) has encouraged creativity, inclusion, acceptance, support, friendship and worldwide communication through writing. How can this possibly be a bad thing?

3. Correct me if wrong, but agents and editors are pretty good at spotting quickly if something they've been sent is good. #NaNoWrimo might generate a fair few 'thank you, no' letters but in amongst those will be letters saying 'your writing is intriguing and I loved it'.

4. If you're an author who feels that #NaNoWrimo novels are 'flooding the market' then I would politely suggest that you wind your neck in. This isn't a competition. The world needs more novels, more readers, more writers. You want to be heard? Ignore everyone else. Work hard.

5. In any case, #NaNoWriMo is not about publishing. It's about writing. Most people who participate wouldn't dream of sending an unedited manuscript to an agent or publisher. There is plenty of support for those who want to edit/submit, but many don't! It's for fun!

6. And for those that DO want to edit and submit, they certainly don't need or deserve this negativity. They deserve praise for completing a novel (how many people want to write, and just don't?). They deserve our support, enthusiasm, encouragement.

7. Writing is hard enough as it is. Editing (my opinion) is even harder. To anyone that does all that, whether through #NaNoWriMo or on your own (WOW if you did that) then I say WELL DONE YOU BRILLIANT WRITER now edit a bit more and send it off when it's ready.

In case I didn't say this already, 7 of my 8 published novels were written during #NaNoWriMo, including an award-winning NYT bestseller, published in 34 countries. I would never have written it if it hadn't been for @NaNoWriMo.

I probably wouldn't have written it (or any of them) if I'd read one of those blog posts or tweets saying how #NaNoWriMo raises false hope and encourages rubbish writers to think they're good enough. Can you imagine how it feels to be a new writer, reading that?

(Here I should add that I have approximately 9 unfinished or unedited novels, some of them REALLY LONG, that I'm never going to bother looking at again because they're not good enough. I don't just submit because I wrote something - like most people!)

Can you imagine reading a tweet from someone you like and respect, someone whose books you've read, borrowed from a library or paid money for, saying that the market is too crowded and only decent writers should bother to submit?

So to summarise, stop pissing on people's dreams. Stop spreading negativity. Be kind, be inclusive, be encouraging, write more, try your best, eat your greens.

And if you're thinking of trying #NaNoWriMo for the first time, or revisiting it, I say to you GO FOR IT and BE BOLD and write for your life, write your life, write someone else's, share your words, talk to your friends, keep going - you never know what might happen - right?