I didn't have high hopes for this whole NaNo ordeal. Boy, was I dumb....
I've read a few blogs in the last month or so that have lists of reasons why NaNoWriMo gives false hope to writers. Why it leads to unrealistic expectations of publication. Why it doesn't accomplish much. Blah blah blah.
Well, I'm not going to add to that list. So if you're looking for my usual complaints about life, you're going to be disappointed.
First of all, I can't see why NaNo promotes an unhealthy assumption that participating writers will soon be published. I mean, the very nature of NaNo seems, to me, to be an opportunity to throw all the stress and drama of writing for publication out the window.
As far as I can see, NaNo is about writing for the sake of writing. Screw the rules. Screw publishing trends. Just write a story you want to write. Don't look back. Open your mind and let the words flow.
What a liberating month this has turned out to be!
I am quite capable of producing large chunks of story in a short amount of time. I've done it plenty. Thing is, once I started really aiming for the published author title, my writing changed.
I started to fret about rules. About showing and not telling. About adverb tallies. About my annoying abuse of the words 'apparently' and 'just'.
I worried about passive sentences. I lost sleep over lack of CONFLICT, CONFLICT, CONFLICT. I became obsessed with queries and synopsiseseseses.
All that mental clutter slows a writer gal down, you know? I forgot what it was to just let story flow.
This month, I'm remembering it once again. Nice to run into you again, Mr. Free Association! I missed you.
I'm not setting any records for writing my NaNo story. Sometime tonight, I need to try to break the 25,000 word mark. I'm a wee bit ahead of the daily minimum writing goals, but that's it.
Yet, last night, I had the most AWESOME moment of writing zen. Here's the setup:
I'd gone to my usual writing haunt on my day off to get the word count a bit higher. For whatever reason, I wasn't feeling it. The music wasn't great. The table I was at kinda sucked. People were talking too loud about really stupid things.
I gave up after a couple hundred words. Left the coffee joint. Went to Marshall's in search of the ever elusive dirt cheap winter jacket that I don't think I'll ever find.
A little later that night, I got my second wind and opened up the NaNo document. Started exploring the still-unnamed town the action is set in. As I was writing, things started to click. Synapses started to fire.
And then it happened. The moment of zen.
Because as I was throwing down what had started out as an innocent conversation between the heroine, Rebecca, and a newly created townie, I was hit by a literary bolt of lightning.
This new character wasn't just a walk on role. This particular location they met in wasn't just a random quirky business in a quirky little town.
In a nanosecond(ha ha. Get it? NaNo second?) the entire story changed. In the blink of an eye, my entire story veered off course and found a new path.
I think I actually squeed out loud. I'd never uttered a verbal squee before. It was fun.
And then the words couldn't come out fast enough. What a turnaround from my earlier frustrations of the morning writing session.
I'm so jazzed about this new twist. It's something I never, ever considered. It's something that will change every assumption I've had about the future of my hero and heroine.
But I don't care. Because it ROCKS. At least, it does in my brain.
I don't think any amount of outlining would have dug up this particular change. I'm not sure, if I was being careful and grammatical and not passive, if I'd have thought of doing this.
I rather enjoy this feeling of being completely in the dark about how this story will end. And I'm totally happy to have taken the opportunity to discover a brand new story in the time span of a month. I can't wait until the 30th, because I desperately want to find out how this story ends!
So, long story short, to all those who think that NaNo isn't a good thing, thpppppt on you. Maybe this story will be published someday. Maybe not. The only thing that matters to me is that I had the opportunity to write it. Quit pooping on an awesome opportunity to throw caution to the wind and jus
Well, I'm not going to add to that list. So if you're looking for my usual complaints about life, you're going to be disappointed.
First of all, I can't see why NaNo promotes an unhealthy assumption that participating writers will soon be published. I mean, the very nature of NaNo seems, to me, to be an opportunity to throw all the stress and drama of writing for publication out the window.
As far as I can see, NaNo is about writing for the sake of writing. Screw the rules. Screw publishing trends. Just write a story you want to write. Don't look back. Open your mind and let the words flow.
What a liberating month this has turned out to be!
I am quite capable of producing large chunks of story in a short amount of time. I've done it plenty. Thing is, once I started really aiming for the published author title, my writing changed.
I started to fret about rules. About showing and not telling. About adverb tallies. About my annoying abuse of the words 'apparently' and 'just'.
I worried about passive sentences. I lost sleep over lack of CONFLICT, CONFLICT, CONFLICT. I became obsessed with queries and synopsiseseseses.
All that mental clutter slows a writer gal down, you know? I forgot what it was to just let story flow.
This month, I'm remembering it once again. Nice to run into you again, Mr. Free Association! I missed you.
I'm not setting any records for writing my NaNo story. Sometime tonight, I need to try to break the 25,000 word mark. I'm a wee bit ahead of the daily minimum writing goals, but that's it.
Yet, last night, I had the most AWESOME moment of writing zen. Here's the setup:
I'd gone to my usual writing haunt on my day off to get the word count a bit higher. For whatever reason, I wasn't feeling it. The music wasn't great. The table I was at kinda sucked. People were talking too loud about really stupid things.
I gave up after a couple hundred words. Left the coffee joint. Went to Marshall's in search of the ever elusive dirt cheap winter jacket that I don't think I'll ever find.
A little later that night, I got my second wind and opened up the NaNo document. Started exploring the still-unnamed town the action is set in. As I was writing, things started to click. Synapses started to fire.
And then it happened. The moment of zen.
Because as I was throwing down what had started out as an innocent conversation between the heroine, Rebecca, and a newly created townie, I was hit by a literary bolt of lightning.
This new character wasn't just a walk on role. This particular location they met in wasn't just a random quirky business in a quirky little town.
In a nanosecond(ha ha. Get it? NaNo second?) the entire story changed. In the blink of an eye, my entire story veered off course and found a new path.
I think I actually squeed out loud. I'd never uttered a verbal squee before. It was fun.
And then the words couldn't come out fast enough. What a turnaround from my earlier frustrations of the morning writing session.
I'm so jazzed about this new twist. It's something I never, ever considered. It's something that will change every assumption I've had about the future of my hero and heroine.
But I don't care. Because it ROCKS. At least, it does in my brain.
I don't think any amount of outlining would have dug up this particular change. I'm not sure, if I was being careful and grammatical and not passive, if I'd have thought of doing this.
I rather enjoy this feeling of being completely in the dark about how this story will end. And I'm totally happy to have taken the opportunity to discover a brand new story in the time span of a month. I can't wait until the 30th, because I desperately want to find out how this story ends!
So, long story short, to all those who think that NaNo isn't a good thing, thpppppt on you. Maybe this story will be published someday. Maybe not. The only thing that matters to me is that I had the opportunity to write it. Quit pooping on an awesome opportunity to throw caution to the wind and jus
