November
1st...that means it's the start of National Novel Writing Month--NaNoWriMo--during
which writers around the world will make the attempt to cough up a novel in the
span of 30 days.
Some
will make it; some will give up; some will keep trying right until the bitter
end. It sounds easy enough--just sit down every day and write 1700 words, and
by the end of the month you'll have over 50,000 words written down, good or
bad.
It's
not as easy as it sounds, though, because your inner editor tends to kick in
and you start over thinking things, worrying about the quality of your story
and whether or not it will be worth the effort at the end of the month, much
less whether anyone will ever want to read it.
Take
my advice: tell your inner editor to shut the frak up. Quiet that annoying
voice with chocolate or cookies, popcorn or rice krispy treats, whatever it
takes. Just sit down and write, and come December you can take put your editor
hat back on and get to work of fixing the massive volume of mistakes.
Oh
yeah, there will be a metric ton of oopsies, but that's all right. Just get the
story out on to virtual paper; it doesn't matter if it's wonderful or the
biggest pile of suck ever created. All that matters is that you write.
You're
creating a habit; that's a good thing.
Just
as important as sitting down and getting the writing done is insisting that the
people around you respect the time you need in order to get it done; you really
only need a couple of hours a day, make sure you take it and that everyone
knows that they have to leave you alone during that time. Make sure they grasp
that this isn't just a "thing" you're doing, but that you're actively
engaged in actual work. Work that may later become income-producing.
Your
work deserves respect.
Keep
the NaNo flowing…in 30 days you’ll have the bones of your book done, and then
can flesh it out, fix it up, make it longer, and make it awesome.
I’m
not doing it this year—again—because I already have two projects going on and I
started working on one long before November. Technically I could turn the other
one into a NaNo project—all I’ve done on it is some character outlining and
bare bones plot descriptions—but I’m deep enough into the first one that I need
to focus in it.
It’s
Max’s book. If I work on anything else…poop on my pillow, toothy death to
things I love. You know the drill.
So
I’m not doing NaNoWriMo, but I am working along with you guys, and I’m paying
attention to my daily word count as if I were doing it.
Write
on, peoples. Just 48,000 more words to go, right?
3 comments:
We're doing it for the first time this year. The Woman tends to write closer to 5000 words a day (not very good words, mind you, but she's in the habit of working with writing regularly) so she's hoping that being in a contest against herself doesn't slow her down or set up more expectation for the work!
Was planning on doing it this year, but with my circumstances I likely wont be able to finish. All the best to those who can. And yes, it IS "real work" no matter what those who barely read, much less write, would say.
I'm going for it for the first time too!
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