You may have noticed that I've been pretty busy, and if you've read this blog before, if you've been unlucky enough to talk to me on the phone, or via email or in a post somewhere else online--basically if you've spoken two words to me in any format at all within the last six weeks--then you already know the reason.
I'm in NaNoWriMo mode. And my god has it been hard!!
When I started this I thought--how bad can this really be? I write every day as it is, so this will just be a few more hundred words on my daily count, right? *snort*
Okay, I was wrong. And it wasn't the first time believe it or not.
The difference is in how you write for Nano. The challenge is not only to get the required wordcount by the end of the month, but also to have a completed novel by then. Which means you have to "keep moving forward" (I'm stealing from Walt Disney here folks).
There's no editing in Nano. There's no going back to fix. There's no layering. There's only crappy, incohesive, incomprehensible writing.
Now, I've learned in the last few days that I can be okay with that. But at about the halfway mark when I saw what was coming out of my brain onto the screen I wanted to cry and scream and go back and erase the whole lot of it. How can I work like this, I thought. I'm very methodical usually, and it was killing me to see all of the glaring holes and problems with the storyline and not have the time to fiddle with it and fix it.
But I realize that after Nano is done, the fixing will come later. That's the whole idea isn't it? To at least get a first draft of something down. To prove that you can take an idea from start to finish (no matter how terrible it is). The fixing can come later, after the rush and exhileration of having actually met that goal fades and you get back to real life.
For anyone who's interested, you're very welcome to visit my page at the NaNoWriMo website to track my progress. So far I'm not doing to badly, but I could use all the support I can get.
http://www.nanowrimo.org/user/208090
See you at the finish line!
1 comments:
Interesting concept, this NaNoWriMo thingy. It reminds me of how I approach my guitar solos when I`m playing live, with my band. When I start, I don`t really have a clear idea of exactly what the solo will consist of. I throw a lot of emotional energy into it as I go, using a combination of tried, tested and true musical configurations, and pure improvisation with no safety net.
At the end of it all, I can only hope that what I did meant something to someone. (It always means something to me, but hey, I`m just the artist!!) Best of luck on this adventure, Kris. You`ve "got it in you" so "get it out there" :)
Dave Sloane
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