Deborah Ng
Oh yes. It’s November. All the writing blogs and forums are abuzz with NaNoWriMo talk, which is why I’m steering clear. Yes, I’m a NaNoWriMo grinch. Part of the reason is that I’m not a fiction writer and part of the reason is because I think it’s a little overblown.
What is NaNoWriMo?
NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month and is probably the silliest anagram I’ve come across in some time. Say it out loud with me, “NaNoWriMo.” It doesn’t really flow, does it? To make it worse, perfectly fluent writers and bloggers are saying to each other, “Do you NaNoWriMo?” “OMG!!! Yes!!!”. It turns brilliant minds into text chatters.
The premise behind NaNoWriMo is to be able to write and complete an entire novel in a month. A whole novel, people. Not a chapter, not an outline, but an entire novel featuring plot, characters, dialogue and the whole shebang.
Why am I hating on NaNoWriMo?
So I think at this point it’s clear my annoyance at NaNoWriMo goes beyond a silly anagram. Why do I dislike it so much?
- Because most writers I know write novels to relax. I don’t think there’s anything relaxing about having to write an entire novel in 30 days. I know some writers who absolutely stress over their one month deadline and beat themselves up if they don’t make their goals.
- Because I’m not so sure one can write a good novel in one month. Let’s be realistic here, can you really write a good novel in a month? We often talk about employers who cause writer’s burnout by asking for unrealistic quotas and deadlines, and then we suggest we can write novels in a month? Good novels? I’m sure some can do it, but I’m willing to bet there’s a whole lot of not very good being churned out in November.
- Because creativity isn’t a page on the calendar. Really, if I feel the urge to write, I’ll do it. I don’t know about you, but it’s not always easy to write on command. Ideas don’t always come when we want them to. It’s hard enough to plan a blog post around a given title sometimes, I can’t see forcing out a novel.
- Umm….holidays? Could there BE any worse time to schedule a marathon of writing? Well, maybe December. Who decided November would be a good month to write an entire novel? Why not March? Nothing ever happens in March.
Enough of this silliness. If you want to write, write. You don’t need a month or a day or permission to be creative. Take your time and go for quality over quanity. Meanwhile, I’m going to go hide under a rock for the next 22 days.
My guess is that 95% of the folks who actually follow through with the whole experiment churn out really bad novels.
However, I also figure that about 90% of novels are pretty lousy in the first place. The stinker rate probably isn’t much worse than it is on the shelves of B&N.
Some people can’t crank it out unless they have targets and structure. So be it.
Everyone has a different approach. Kerouac sits down with a roll of teletype paper and goes apeshit. Masterpiece ensues. Proust sits around being introspective forever and a day. Masterpiece ensues.
Different strokes.
I will never, ever, ever, ever, ever do the NaNoWriMo thing. Why?
First, the name pisses me off. It’s a stinky pseudo anagram thing and I find it irritating.
Second, it seems like people get really worked up and excited about the participation itself. The “being part of NaNoWriMo” vibe feels stronger than the “I’m writing” vibe. Another commenter mentioned that it was like a writers’ group. People talk about accountability and “NaNoWriMo friends”, etc. It’s like a club. I’m not a club person. That Groucho thing about not wanting to join any club that would have me as a member fits me perfectly. If I wanted to join a club, I’d hook up with Elks. At least that would get me a lodge with cheap beer.
Glad to see you’re still occasionally pissing people off. That’s a good sign, Deb. Keep it up.
Carson
Well geez, now who are getting their panties in a bunch? I didn’t go back and count, but I believe there were two (possibly three) comments saying they wouldn’t come back here. Out of 50. One was a first-time visitor, and another actually said she would still come to other parts of the site.
In any event, many of you are still missing the point of why some of us were upset with this post. It’s *not* because Deb disagrees with NaNo; it’s not even that she wrote a post saying she disagrees with NaNo. It is her method of delivery, which to many of us participating was mean-spirited, degrading, disrespectful, and condescending (and this continued in her comments). As a small example, she used the word “silly” or its variations several times; is it surprising that would offend professional writers who, as Deb very well knows, bust our bums every day to make a living and then are managing to squeeze in another hour or so a day for NaNo?
It can be dangerous writing snark on a blog, and this time with many of us, Deb pushed it too far, particularly since the thesis of Deb’s post seems to be “Don’t do NaNo to write a novel,” do…what? Wait until inspiration strikes! Anyone who has ever read anything on writing fiction, i.e., anyone committed to the craft, knows that is the single most detrimental thing you can do for your novel.
And so, yes, I’ll go a step further and say this “advice” is also rather irresponsible as it based on neither personal experience nor anecdotal evidence of published authors; and perhaps that would’ve sat better with many of us if the “advice” was coming from say, Joe the Plumber, and not from a well-respected writer whose opinion and input people trust.
And if you don’t think people are taking this as a well-respected writer’s advice on novel writing and NaNo, check out the trackback above. Deb successfully convinced a writer to give up on NaNo with this post. Mission accomplished!
Quite simply, the tone expressed in this post, so very hostile and belittling to aspiring novelists following their dreams, is something I never would have expected to see at FWJ, and yes, I’m extremely disappointed. Does that mean I’ll never come back? Of course not. Does it mean I’ll consider the “advice” offered here in a different way? Absolutely.
And perhaps that’s a good thing.
P.S. I was going to just let this slide, but I can’t. NaNoWriMo is an acronym, not an anagram.
No, you can’t write a bestseller in 30 days, during NaNoWriMo. But you can produce a draft that you wouldn’t have had so quickly otherwise. December is for NaNoEdMo, which is for the editing, or really rewriting. For serious writers, this is the normal process of writing a novel anyway, just at a faster pace. It’s a challenge, people. A challenge. And a no-win argument, by the way.
You don’t understand it and have lots of misconceptions about the process and why people do it, so it’s easy for you to dismiss it with however many rationalizations you can come up with. Fine for you, but leave the rest alone. We like NaNoWriMo cuz we GET IT.
KJ
http://interminablewriter.com
Gosh, thanks for putting us down, those of us who actually enjoy it and have a blast doing it, and really enjoy the cameraderie.
I rather hoped for better from you.
Again, I’m not knocking the writers just the concept.
And am I to understand no one here has ever blogged, written about or ranted about something they don’t believe in?
I’m the only one then?
lol, Deb. Well said. I think I signed up one year and didn’t write a word.
Anne Wayman, now blogging at http://www.aboutfreelancewriting.com
So now Deb has no credibility because she doesn’t agree with NaNoWriMo? But she’s good enough to come to for job leads, right? There’s a word for that…anyone?
I’m not seeing anything in Deb’s post putting us down. She listed her reasons for disagreeing with NaNoWriMo and did a good job of it. Because we don’t agree doesn’t make her arguments invalid. I’m suprised at the attitude of some of the commentators. I think Deb gets it more than you give her credit for. She’s been in this business for many years. She fights tirelessly for us every day. I may not agree with her but I know her motives and she always looks out for writers. Maybe that’s what she’s doing here?
Your feelings are hurt because you’re participating in NaNoWriMo and Deb isn’t a fan of the “concept.” Get over it. It’s not us she’s bashing it’s the idea that writers need a special month to pump out a novel. I get and it doesn’t offend me. By they way, I respectfully disagree with everything Deb wrote.
I did my NaNoWriMo stint. The best part was getting in the habit of writing daily. But let me tell you, No Plot? BIG Problem!
I think the acronym sucks as does the caption under the pic.
Otherwise it is a good idea for people who need to learn how to meet deadlines/self-discipline and such.
You have totally missed the point. NaNoWriMo (which I think is fun to say) is not about quality. It is about writing without restraint. Many, many people constantly self-edit to the point that they paralyze themselves. NaNo is about just cranking it out. It doesn’t have to be good. If something isn’t working you just shrug and think “I’ll fix it in December.” I think of my NaNo project as just a draft for something that I may or may not fix later on. I have to admit that in all my years of participating, I’ve only completed it once. But that was the absolute best feeling in the world. My story had all kind of holes and issues that needed to be reworked. But that didn’t matter. I had completed the goal. And now I had a story that I would rework and edit to my hearts content.
I’m sad that you feel so negatively about NaNo but I think it is an exciting month. And I homeschool three kids, work as an assistant and do freelance writing. So, it is a crazy month for me but I attempt it every year.
At the risk of offending someone and starting another round of flame wars, does anyone else think it’s tremendously funny to post a caption saying “Anyone can be a writer, if you set the bar low enough” on a blog? Deb, I salute your sense of irony, and once again, I thank you for your continued work; this site is one of my daily must-visits.
Oh, my goodness. This has gotten a bit nutty, hasn’t it?
While I was one of the earlier ‘protesters’ here, I do want to emphasize that my post was merely meant to be a part of a dialogue, responding to the arguments Deb put forth. Sure, I don’t happen to agree with her points, but it is her blog, and it’s her right, nay, her *job* to put her opinion up there. In fact, it’s been a while since I’ve seen her so impassioned, and I’m happy to see it. Had this turned into a dialogue about the post, that’d be one thing, but it’s turned into a full-on attack of a fellow writer, one who has done a lot of hard work to get you work.
Which brings me to my next point. To all who are offended by Deb’s post, remember she is a writer, too. Would you want someone to disregard the body of your work because of one story, novel, article? Because the reader didn’t like the tone, the theme, the what-have-you of one piece of writing?
I also would like to respond to my fellow ‘protesters’ who are now attacking Deb: You are also being disengenuous. And rather proving Deb’s point about how the participation in NaNo supercedes the process. NaNoWriMo is just a month-long event that works for some people. It’s a month to free your mind, write what comes to you, break down inner barriers, find passion for writing again. It’s nothing more. It’s not Obama coming to save the world from pending doom.
I “won” NaNoWriMo in 2006 and am in the process of editing that novel with the end desire being publication. I’m just over 10,000 this year and will also be editing during March (NaNoEdMo) with the hopes of publication.
I love NaNo and without it I would not have a completed novel and be writing another one. It keeps me on track and keeps me motivated. I get to meet other NaNoers and we help each other along.
And it’s not just newbie authors either: one of my favorite authors, Kelley Armstrong is participating in NaNo, using the month to write the final book in one of her trilogies.
If writers sat around waiting for inspiration, then most of us wouldn’t write! And no, what I will have at the end won’t be a polished book, but no first draft is.
While NaNoWriMo might not be for everyone, for those of us that participate it can be a writing life saver.
By the way, I’m also gearing up for next September’s three day novel writing contest. :0)
Wow, who started that site? Steven King? lol He’s the only one I know who can write a book like I write a blog.
I personally don’t object to writing a page a day for a year, and at the end of the year, you conceivably have a novel.. but trying to write ten pages a day, every day, seems unnatural to the writing process… unless you’re super inspired.
I don’t know. Writing just to be writing doesn’t seem right. (That sounds weird.) I think you should always sacrifice quantity for quality.
Hey, Deb…wanna come over an watch the Bills with me this Sunday?
@Julie – Sorry. I’ll be busy sticking forks in my eyes.
@Deb- Ha!
This is my first year doing NaNoWriMo and I love it so far. At 31,000 words, I know I’m not writing a quality novel, but that’s actually not the point. The point is to do what I like to call the “brain barf” and just START WRITING it. December is for editing, for making it a real novel and not just 230 pages of dribble.
NaNoWriMo teaches beginning novelists how to make a schedule and stick with it – if this novel of mine turns into nothing, at least I’ve become a more disciplined writer. Marathon writing? Sometimes, yeah. Sometimes I churn out 2000 good words in 90 minutes, sometimes 2000 crummy ones in 3 hours.
But don’t knock the quality that comes out of NaNo… people get published. NYT bestsellers have been born in NaNo marathons. It all starts somewhere.
As my Lit professor used to say about : TRY IT, YOU’LL LIKE IT!
Seriously, don’t knock it if you haven’t tried it.
Most mere mortals have NEVER written 50k, let alone attempted such a feat in 30 days. Writing a novel, especially with holidays and waning inspiration, that’s a real accomplishment. Last year over 100,000 people signed up world wide, but only 10k people managed to finish. It’s HARD, but that’s what makes it exciting.
I find it to be a very liberating experience. I love the deadline. I’ve been doing NaNo for the past four years (inclusive), and I’ve become a better writer because of it. My writing speed has improved since joining up too — because I’ve HAD to write every day. (I used to think that the 1,667 words every day was daunting; 3,000+ words a day seems easy now!) I love the community too. In my area NaNo has helped to form a nice writing group that did not previously exist. We coordinate on the NaNo forums and meet up at a (locally owned) coffee shop.
Here’s the list of people who have gone on to be published after doing NaNoWriMo: http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/node/402661 So, yes, this exercise can lead to success.
You are welcome to sit on the sidelines and say, “Oh, that’s easy, I could do that, but I’m not going to, because, uh, I don’t have anything to prove.” Or you could join in. It’s fun!
Don’t knock it if you haven’t tried it!
NaNoWriMo: I DID IT!
“A Bottle of White” is, at this point, still just a bunch of pieces. My characters have a lot of action but I skipped doing anything to do with setting and background – I wanted to know where they were going more than anything. And maybe it’s not ever going to be publishable (it sure isn’t now and I was always aware that it wouldn’t be on December 1st) but I have a new goal now. I want a total of 85k by the end of March. That’s a better novel length (my 50k is only 180 pages), and that’s plenty of time to edit and refine and make it better.
Maybe I’ll only ever publish it on CreateSpace.com and buy myself a copy for fun. I really don’t care. Now I know I can write every day and stick with it. I’m not afraid to try anymore.
DebNg: “Do the words flow as naturally as if you wrote when inspiration hit”?
People who write fiction regularly work on their writing despite not always having inspiration. The best way to get inspired is to be already working on the project–then, after you read a scene you wrote that stank, you realize exactly what should have gone there.
Otherwise, I see both sides of NaNo. I participated this year—not to win, and certainly not to write a draft that I would end up using, but to see how quickly I could turn out a draft, for fun.