Interview: Simon Haynes on NaNoWriMo

Like all the best Australian science fiction writers, Simon Haynes was born in England. He is the author of the Hal Spacejock series of novels, with #3, Just Desserts, due out Jan 2007. He's also one of those harmless, benevolent geeks who writes free software, including tools for writers. He's written over 41,000 words for this year's NaNoWriMo.

How many times have you participated in NaNoWriMo, and what was the result?

I participated for the first time in 2005 and finished 6 days early with 51,000 words or so. It made me realise I COULD write a first draft every couple of months if I really had to. Mind you, I was stuffed for 6 weeks afterwards and had to go straight into editing Hal 3.

How much time will it take to write 50,000 words? How do you divide the workload across the 30 days?

1700 words per day minimum. When I get near a milestone I pull a little extra. For example, right now I'm on 22602 so if I write 2400 tomorrow I'll have broken 25k. I spend 2-3 hours a day on my 1700 words, some of it actually typing.

Do you spend any time editing/redrafting the work-in-progress during the month?

None at all, but I do insert notes and move the scenes around in yWriter. Otherwise I wouldn't come up with the new scenes I have to write to get the book done.

Do you plan to (eventually) submit the result for publication? If so, how much additional work do you expect to do?

I'm writing the fourth book in the Hal Spacejock series for Nano. The first three are under contract (with two published and one coming out in Jan 07) and I recently signed with an agent in the UK who is looking to get the books published over there. Given the success of the first two and the level of interest in the third, I think more books in the series are likely - although not if I don't write them. I handed in the final final manuscript for Hal 3 in September, so October was a month of rest and now I'm into Hal 4 with a vengeance.

Additional work? Months and months worth. Each of my published novels underwent 8 months of editing, on and off. There's much, much more work in the shaping and polishing than anyone with a first draft could possibly imagine.

What do you get from participating in NaNoWriMo that you couldn't get from setting your own writing targets?

Public embarrassment and humiliation. If I say I'm going to do something, in public, I have to do it. I've already bought Flight Simulator X as my completion present, and it's sitting above my monitor now, unopened. If I don't do the 50k words, back it goes.

Would you recommend the experience to other writers, published and unpublished?

Yes. Teaches you to just write without being critical of every sentence. Given what I said earlier about the huge amount of work I put into editing and rewrites, you can see why finishing a first draft is a useful first step.

If you were in charge of NaNoWriMo, what parameters would you set?

Calling 50k words a novel is daft, and they don't let you start with an existing work. I'd say participants should be allowed to complete last year's half a novel this year, provided they reached 50k last year.

As you can see, Simon Haynes could be a poster-boy for NaNoWriMo. He almost makes it sound like a good idea. It's hard to argue when the end result is a publishable novel.

I hope the next author is easier to mock.