National Novel Writing Month

My wife, and several friends are attempting to write a full novel in a month as part of an online group of writers all attempting the same thing called nanowrimo. I’m curious what papers or book chapters would look like if academics attempted this same thing, cranking out a few pages a day on an idea, then doing all the editing later.

In the book I’m reading now about writing your dissertation (Writing the Dissertation in 15 Minutes a Day, a terrible title if you ask me) the author suggests a similar idea.  The first phase of writing is the zero draft, in which your goal is to write 5 page a day, everyday.  The idea is to establish a strong connection between your thoughts and the paper by dumping everything that is in your head to overcome block or self criticism.  Later, several rounds of editing the zero draft put it into more finalized form.  I’m not sure how this works exactly with literature reviews, methods sections, and theory sections, but perhaps it is beneficial early on in the project.