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December 01, 2004
Retrospective
Well, it's over.
I finished. Again. This makes the fourth year I've done NaNo and the fourth year I've hit the magic wordcount. This year I finished by padding a lot, which is why I stopped at 50,001.
So now I'm catching up on blogs, including Wordweaverlynn's. She wrote some time back about a person on LiveJournal who posted a bunch of advice for writers.
In that post, the person wrote that NaNo will kill your urge to write fiction. Now, this may be true for some people, but I will say this: I wrote my 50k in 51 hours or so, according to my notes, and that was going slow sometimes because I was mixing writing with other stuff. The person who posted said they write 50k a month - and apparently it takes them 25hrs/week.
I have two things to say to that: (1) the writing one does in NaNo is very different from professional writing and (2) geez, man, why do you write so slow?
NaNo is about freeing yourself from the inner editor that tells you to stop writing. It's about writing through writers' block, writing when you're scared you suck at this, it's about just writing. And if you buy into the theory that one has to write a million words of shit before writing anything really good (which I do) NaNo is a great way to get all that out of the way. I have learned a lot about plotting and character by doing NaNo. I've even produced a draft which I plan to clean up and submit somewhere (if I can get enough time - I'm a freelance writer and educator and am freakin' busy!). Maybe I'll sign up for NaNoEdMo this year and really do it, not crap out like I did last year.
Furthermore, I know I'm an anomoly, that most writers don't write this fast, but I was trained as a journalist, and am used to crazy deadlines. I'm used to turning out a 1000 word article, ready to publish, in two or three hours, max. I don't think this is bad or crazy, I think it's useful. My writing gigs mostly pay by the piece, not the hour, so there's further incentive to write quickly. NaNo is extra training for that. If you're creating Art, sure, you go more slowly. But if you're trying to communicate something, speed works just fine. With my novels, I'm trying to entertain, to tell a cool story, that's ALL. I can do that quickly. That doesn't take pondering. I am more at the Conan/Tarzan end of things than the High Fantasy end of things. Yanno?
Anyway.
Viva la NaNo! I know a lot of people in the South Bay writing group are talking about quitting NaNo, but I can't imagine not doing it. I can't imagine giving up this wonderful, insane month where I just tell my story and get it out there. I mean, if I don't write these stories, nobody will. They only exist inside my head until I put them on paper, and that alone makes me want to tell them. They entertain me, maybe they'll entertain other people, too.
Posted by Ealasaid at December 1, 2004 12:46 PM
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Comments
Yay, you finished! Again! I could never handle as much as you put on your plate. I hope you're way way proud of yourself. I know I am. :o) So. When do we get to read? *grin*
Posted by: Rave at December 1, 2004 01:33 PM