Writing Wrongs

January 31, 2007

So the lovely Anno asked yesterday what I had against NaNo (I know, I know, I’m such a hater of democracy), since what I’m doing is essentially a NaNo type word-count drive.

Let’s look at some numbers and I’ll elaborate.

I have 56 days to do this versus the 30 of NaNo. Nearly twice as long. Don’t think that matters? Think again. If you want to “win” NaNo, you have to write 1666.666 (50,000/30) words per day. If you don’t see evil lurking in that number, you’re not looking hard enough.

My word count is based in part on time and in part on what I feel I can do each day. When I reach my quota, I can quit. Writing a novel is like running a marathon. Not everyone is in good enough shape to write 1666.666 words every day right out of the gate. It’s a good way to burn out, in my opinion.

At first, I was hitting 930, but I slowly crept up on the word count. I did write 2,000 words one day, on the weekend, but otherwise, I haven’t broken 1,600. From a NaNo point of view, I’m a loser.

The process, even though I’m sharing it here, is very insular. I email Kelly each night--that keeps me honest. Otherwise, there isn’t a lot of static to go along with this. I don’t have to listen to how someone managed to write 3,500 words, whip up a gourmet meal, and shellac the dog, and oh, by the way, her publisher can’t wait for this novel. I also don’t have to listen how someone typed 350 words that were so tortuous their fingers bled.

Stephen King talks about “closing the door” when writing a first draft. I think that can apply to both the writing and the process.

And I’m all about reexamining process. Last year, I looked at revision. This year, one of my goals is to look at generating more material that I can revise. I have nothing against writing faster. But I’m looking for balance.

Instead of pushing myself to write as much as possible each day, I stop when I reach my number (or if I’m on a roll, a little past that). I read. I recharge. I think about upcoming scenes, review character bios and scene cards.

And so on.

I know, I know. NaNo is supposed to fun. (See the part where I hate democracy above. I also hate fun.) It’s supposed to be silly. You’re not supposed to care how good the story is at the end.

But I do care. A lot. I know this is a rough draft. If I get to the end and realize I need to pull the whole thing apart and put it back together again, that’s okay.

There’s a balance I’m trying to maintain. I want to write fast enough to squelch those first-draft doubts. But I want to write slowly enough so I don’t desperate and decide to drop aliens (or alients as Kyra calls them) into chapter fourteen.

This is my long way of saying that I don’t actually hate NaNo, or have anything against it, or think others shouldn’t participate; it just doesn’t work for me. And hey, this is the rough draft. It’s the time when it should be all about me, Me, ME.

The short answer is I probably just hate democracy.

The Fine Art of Holding Your Breath
39,844 / 60,000 (65.00%)

Charity Tahmaseb wrote at 10:32 a.m.

|