Jeff DeRego is no fan of NaNoWriMo. I can sympathize. What I can’t sympathize with is that he disses the idea of writing “every day.” Listen to his audio commentary for Paula B’s Writing Show. Here’s my audio response.

I agree with him on NaNoWriMo. I agree with him except on one point. I think writers do write every day. Maybe you don’t always write words for your novel, but you write something that isn’t email. Maybe it’s an article, or an editorial, or maybe it’s pre-writing for your novel. Or maybe “writing” just means planning on your novel–although I’d be very careful with that one, because “planning” can be a wonderful source of procrastination, which is not writing.

In short, I think it’s much more important to maintain a sustainable pace and to adopt an effective writing process. That said, I am doing NaNoWriMo this year, but only because I just coincidentally happen to be starting a new book.

(And as it’s turning out, I’m probably not going to “win.” But that doesn’t bother me so much.)

-TimK