NaNoWriMo: "You're just a bad boyfriend and a lousy literary lay."
There's a really nice commentary about the negative side of the experience with NaNoWriMo phrased as a break-up letter over on the blog of a YA author I stalk follow. She's published three novels, and figured she'd give NaNoWriMo a try to write another in a short time span. The result? Crap.
The only really good thing about it is that it creates a daily writing habit. For people who always wanted to write and don't make or take the time, it's cool. The counterpoint is that it tells you quantity is better than quality. For people who won't start at all because their inner editor is crippling them, that's probably true.
I want to remember this for next year, in case I start thinking about NaNoWriMo again. I always like the idea of it, as a kick in the pants to get a lot written and bang out a draft. The first year, it was really good for me, because I was getting over the burnout I suffered from writing my honors thesis. It got me excited, it was reckless fun, and reminded me why I like writing. But the story itself, while it has some vague merit, is mostly crap. I am too ashamed to show it to anyone. And in the last five years, I've never gotten more than a few pages into a revision, despite multiple attempts. There's just too much wrong with it.
My NaNoWriMo 2005 was a lot more like Maggie's experience - I started writing, realized I liked where I was headed, but that I had to slow down in order to make it into the draft I wanted. I think I hit 22,000 words and stopped. My problem really is follow-through, but NaNoWriMo doesn't actually improve follow-through, because it doesn't mean that I get done, just that I hit an arbitrary goal of 50,000 words. I should, theoretically, be able to set a much more reasonable and meaningful goal, and not produce so much crap.
For December I'd like to finish that Crimson Courier story. Maybe in January I can tackle something else, just for me?





