NaNoWriMo Notes: Why? Why Not.
Published October 10, 2005
NaNoWriMo represents an opportunity to test my resolve in a carefree atmosphere. Currently there are fourteen paragraphs of a novel sitting in the hard drive of this computer, representing about a year and a half's sporadic output. I have to finish it some time or another, it would feel like a betrayal to those characters inhabiting the world I've created not to—but at the same time it does not feel like it should be my first novel.
In fact part of the problem is that I realize I care too much about it to want to trivialize it with first-novel mistakes. I need to empty my brain of all the accumulated plot twists, literary devices, and extraneous nonsense that I have accumulated from years of envisioning novels in my head. What better way to divest myself of all that than in the damn the torpedoes, full-steam-ahead type of atmosphere generated by NaNoWirMo?
Well now that I've settled, in my mind anyway, why the hell I'm doing this, it's only a matter of figuring out what the hell I'm going to do. The sensible thing would be to come up with an idea, compose an outline, create some characters, and come up with a variety of scenarios for them. Of course there's always the option of just starting blind; sitting down at the laptop on November 1st with no plans, just an idea, and see where it goes. Ah well, I still have twenty-one days and just over eighteen hours to figure that out. I'll let you know what I've decided.
Edited: PC
Richard Marcus is a long-haired Canadian iconoclast who writes reviews and opines on the world as he sees it at Leap In The Dark and Epic India Magazine.
- NaNoWriMo Notes: Why? Why Not.
- Published: October 10, 2005
- Type: Opinion
- Section: Books
- Filed Under: Culture: Arts
- Part of a feature: NaNoWriMo Notes
- Writer: Richard Marcus
- Richard Marcus's BC Writer page
- Richard Marcus's personal site
- Spread the Word
- Like this article?
- Email this
Save to del.icio.us
Comments on this articleComments
People have different goals, too. Some think of theselves as one day having a real book, while others think that but deny thinking that and just write.
The purest way is to sit down with a blank slate. If you haven't written before, all the preparation is just extra pressure and baggage. And it's less fun.
Remember the motto: Quantity over quality. Once you roll with that - for this excercise - you can very much surprise yourself that you let quality slip in unannounced.
Hmmm do you mean something like: The waves of ideas that washed into his brain before the onset of NaNoWriMo was like high tide on the winds swept ocean front of inspiration...!
Pat if I could figure out what gimcracks and furbellows are I would gladly rid myself of them...I'd just hope they weren't contagous...
Thanks Temple, I was pretty much of the same mind, but it's a matter of convincing my mind of it. I'd guess that's a case of matter over mind?
This is my third year of doing Nanowrimo, and the most helpful thing I can suggest is to hide any and all distractions from yourself, and go to any local meetups. You'd be amazed how sane spending just an hour or so a week will make you feel, especially in the slow plodding of the second and third weeks. Besides, the MLs get goodies for you. :)
Then again, I'm biased. I found the first year, I went in with nothing more than a half formed character in my head that had waltzed in the night before, and had little trouble making my 50k, but it was mostly junk, edited out to 25k before being scrapped almost entirely to a rewrite. My second year, I had a long plan, and got halfway and stalled. This year, I have some research, and the first few chapters vaugely outlined, but I don't really know anything for certain about it beyond a general premise and the style I want to handle it in. Will it work? Hopefully so.
Bravo to anyone who gives this a try. I have heard of NaNoWriMo, but I'm just a lil' chicken sh%t. : ) Too many excuses, not enough... fill in the blanks.
Anyway...Good luck Gypsyman, I'm in your corner!
OK, Gypsyman. I signed up and haven't a clue as to what I want to do. It is your fault if I play the fool.
But it is a fine idea, an interesting site with lofty goals. Just imagine--literacy sweeping over the globe!
As for me, I must begin thinking on this and then trying to find time, the muse, and the courage. Your fault.
and I will be signing up, as well.
- probably fixing a previous nanowrimo novel of 78,000 words.
I tried last year and fell by the wayside after a week.
I'm going to try again this year, though. What was that about "If first you don't succeed?"
Anyway, good luck to those who choose to participate.
Add your comment, speak your mind
(Or ping: http://blogcritics.org/mt/tb/37687)
From what I'm seeing at the NaNoWriMo site, long-time participants have all kinds of approaches to this.
Some do just as you've suggested here: sit down to a blank slate on 11/01 at 12:01 am. Some arrive at the first of November with a plot outline, character definitions, and a vague idea of themes and climaxes. [waving hand in air: me! me!]
Some even start with a partly-finihsed work. While not strictly within the rules, the key is to write 50,000 new words for the month of November.
I love the idea of purging yourself of all those writing gimcracks and furbelows. Maybe there is even a place for the Bulwer-Lytton opening sentence in there!