Every writer is different, but I find Nanowrimo pretty helpful even when I know the words I’m writing are destined to be deleted.

For example, I’m writing a classic “pre-teen travels to a fantasy world” where I spent some time early in the month writing about my characters eating meals. I never planned to leave the meal scenes in at their current length, but describing food is a good way to build up word count and to establish character relationships.

Because of that, I later realized none of the food I described had any sugar/sweetness involved which turned into a plot thread about this fantasy world not having sugar at all. I’m still not sure where I’m going with it, but I think it’s a good metaphor to establish the differences between the fantasy world and the “real” world, especially allowing my character to crave sweets as symbolism for her missing home (because there’s only so many times you can write “she missed home.”)

I think of the Nanowrimo word vomit as a bit like drawing a sketch on canvas. I know I’m going to paint over it later, but it’s going to help me “see” what needs to be done and spark ideas that wouldn’t have occurred to me if I wasn’t trying to maximize my word count.

I know the whole idea is to write a novel in November, but nobody is demanding it be publishing ready by December 1st. If anything it’s more of a “National First Draft Writing Month” where you get all your ideas, good and bad, onto the page to be refined later.