NANWRIMO
Published on Nov 14 2009 | Filed under: Embraced by Darkness, For Writers
In writers groups across the country November has become synonomous with NANOWRIMO. That is (to those of you who don’t know): National Novel Writing Month. From the website you can get this description of what exactly it means to be a part of NANOWRIMO:
>>National Novel Writing Month is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing. Participants begin writing November 1. The goal is to write a 175-page (50,000-word) novel by midnight, November 30. Valuing enthusiasm and perseverance over painstaking craft, NaNoWriMo is a novel-writing program for everyone who has thought fleetingly about writing a novel but has been scared away by the time and effort involved. Because of the limited writing window, the ONLY thing that matters in NaNoWriMo is output. It’s all about quantity, not quality. The kamikaze approach forces you to lower your expectations, take risks, and write on the fly.<<
I don’t really get it.
Obviously you’re probably wondering what somebody like me would think of something like NANOWRIMO. I think it’s absolutely wonderful for the people that participate. And for the writers that finish. I think it’s a great confidence booster and I think it’s a way to find ideas and reach beyond yourself/farther into you’re own imagination than you normally would. NANOWRIMO is a cool motivational tool.
However, I do not think it is real novel writing. Am I being a snively little brat? You’re damn right. The very idea that someone would call what they’re accomplishing in four weeks the exact same name of what I’ve been working on for ten years is damned offensive. I want to throw a fit and I can’t help it. I smile stonily, coldly, politely and I have never said a bad word about NANOWRIMO. But I can’t help but feel as though my work (and the years of extensive work made by thousands of novelists across the world) is belittled every year in November.
My writing averages out to 2 thousand words an hour. I could write 50,000 words in 25 hours. Where in the hell did they pull 50,000 out of? Most publishing companies won’t accept a 50,000 word “novel” because it’s too short. I think it should be doubled. 100,000 word book would actually give people something to work with at the end. Something they can edit and cut from. Something they can shape. Right now, ending on 50,000 words just means if they want a full length book then they’re going to have to keep adding even after they “finished” NANOWRIMO.
“But that’s not what NANOWRIMO is about Tarah!” Okay, I’ll bite. I am fully aware this is a motivational tool to help bring out the stories in the people attempting it. It is also a confidence booster for those that manage to finish. It is not about having a book ready to publish after one month it’s about having the confidence to try to have a book ready SOMEDAY. Because, it has been proven, most writers never start because they’re intimidated by the idea of a novel. NANOWRIMO changes all of that. Okay, but I still think that if National Novel Writing Month is not about finishing a full length novel in a month than they’ve got some serious false advertising going on!
Yeah, and I still don’t get it
Yup, I don’t. I just don’t. I’ve literally had mentors and friends of mine suggest I do NANOWRIMO to help “put away” my internal editor and learn “to just write”. Hmm. I’ve never told them that I’ve cut and added 50,000 words in less than a week on average for years working on my monster. But I don’t say these things because most writers seem to think that 50,000 is a big number. I don’t. And writers like me who would say something of how many words I work with generally are thought of as show-offs and liars and are usually not liked. So, no, I haven’t said anything outloud.
If I actually devoted myself to 50,000 words what I would end up with is a book just as far from finished as my rewrite is right now. I would do it in less than week and I would have another big chunk of writing that needs days and days of my utmost editting attention. The only thing I will accept from the NANOWRIMO idea is to work on my book like my life depends on it. Like I have an eight week deadline that will send me straight to hell if I don’t have a finished Embraced by Darkness. This has helped me keep working, keep focused and stay determined no matter what. Despite the doubt and the hesitation and my own cautiousness. Getting stuck somewhere in the book where I may be, unmoving, not progressing, for several weeks, is not an option. And it has been with this attitude that I started this blog. I have found this new attitude extremely helpful in keeping me focused, one-minded, attacking my book.
As of right now I have spent four days without looking at Embraced by Darkness. It is the longest I have spent away from it in six weeks. I have deleted over 30,000 words from the book (roughly averaging to every thousand words that I end up deleting have been added and deleted about three times throughout the process. So when I say 30,000 I actually mean I have been fiddling around with 90,000 words). Does all of that sound like an astronomical amount? I’ve never professed these number to any person, especially my writers’ group. I’m afraid they’ll think I’m showing off or they simply won’t believe me. But this is my blog and I am determined to be as honest and as tedious with my “book-keeping” as possible. Regardless if anyone ever reads this. This blog is about me.
I have finished going through, adding, deleting and re-writing two thirds of the book and finished line-editing one third of the book. Thinking of it like this I literally feel my heart sore. Two thirds done… How bout that? I have been trying to get back to my book the past two days because I finished Osondrous’ story and need to go back through it and line-edit it and I’ve had some trouble getting motivated. But now I see, what am I waiting for? I’m almost done!
As I have been trying to go back to my book I have felt Embraced by Darkness coming back to me. It always does. Not matter how long it’s been or how much of a break my mind and spirit needed from writing. My books have always come back to sit at my subconscious and touch in to my everyday thoughts and actions. And when this happens, I start to get excited and I start to reach for it. When we meet is when I am at my most productive and my next post I am determined will say “I finished line-editing Osondrous and I have begun Karalay’s story. The last story of Embraced by Darkness.”
Then what?
That’s too scary to contemplate. Once I’ve finished Embraced by Darkness and my years and years of work is as done as it can be. Than we all know what comes next. If I have the balls and the funds to send my monster out I am guaranteed a mountain of rejection letters and wasted money that I don’t have to throw away.
Doubt.
But I am going to finish Embraced by Darkness anyway and when it’s done I’m going to go to my next book; The Death of Eliana. And then my next book and then my next. They all sit at my subconscious and touch in to my everyday thoughts and actions. I will work on a book the rest of my life, I know this now. Whether I am ever a published novelist. This is what I’m going to be doing.
