NaNoWayFools

tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13914132.post-1162247513523838272006-10-30T17:15:00.000-05:002006-10-30T17:35:09.623-05:00NaNoWayFoolsYes, I have heard of National Novel Writing Month (or NaNoWriMo to you shorthanders). No, I am not doing it. I heard of this exercise about three years ago and I was interested for about half a second, and then I gave it some good thought and wrote it off as Not For Me. This has not changed. This is not GOING to change. Therefore, stop asking. A novelist called Jon Evans has written a <A HREF="http://www.freaknation.com/essays/anti-writing.php">fantastic screed about how not to become a successful novelist</A>, and his skewering of this NaNoWriMo business is right on target as far as my own reasons for not doing it are concerned. In a nutshell: "Writing is like anything else: if you try and do too much of it when you’re already half-drained, the quality of what you produce goes way down." The rest of this essay is fantastic as well; I highly recommend you give it a good read. Jon tells it like it is here. "Becoming a writer" is not something that can be accomplished with mere gumption - you must have both talent AND the willingness to work hard. And you must write. There are dozens and dozens of how-to writing books that attempt to make it more complicated than that. Most of these books are written by embittered failed novelists, I note. Is this what "those who can't do, teach" means? Truthfully, being a writer is simple, but not easy. Writers write. It's just hard damn work combined with natural ability and imagination. You can't just make it happen. There are no easy fixes. A writer's soul does not thrive on any sort of prepackaged chicken soup. I realize that some people use NaNoWriMo very effectively as a jumping-off point for a more serious writing venture, and others do it because it's just fun, it's a way to blow off some steam, and they don't anticipate or intend that the finished product will ever see the light of day. But for what I'm attempting to do - that is, see my own novel through to completion and hopefully get it published - it's not going to work. So no, I am not doing NaNoWriMo. But yes, I am working. I am working at my own pace. It is probably not as fast as I should be working, but I'm doing it, and I'm attempting to do it well. If I don't come up with 50,000 words by December, I'll be okay with that. As a matter of fact, I had 30 pages of early chapters that I recently slashed-and-burned into about 10. This may look like the opposite of progress to some, but I feel great about it.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/13914132-116224751352383827?l=www.bittysoda.com%2Fblog%2Findex.html' alt='' /></div>Jesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12453529918017277580noreply@blogger.com1