Is NaNo a NoNo?
October 10th, 2006 by Kathleen Bolton
Writers across the world are feverishly polishing up their outlines in preparation for November’s NaNoWriMo challenge. Since I’ve been thinking about Therese’s post yesterday, I’m seriously considering it. I’ve got the makings of a good outline. The story, though shadowy, is starting to form in my head, as are the protagonists and antagonists. Why not go for it?
But after further thought, I’m wondering: will trying to write a dreck first draft in one month backfire?
Bear with me here. It’s not that I’m afraid of failure or even that I’ll blow the whole thing off entirely and be the only writer in the world who didn’t finish NaNo. I suspect there’s a confetti of failed goals littering the NaNo trail.
It’s that the writing is no longer a secret.
For me, the juice that fills my energies comes from hiding in my cave, thrashing away at the keypad. No one but a trusted coterie knows what I’m doing–not even my husband. With NaNo, the writer is coming out of the closet, proclaiming themselves to the world that they are WRITERS. I’m not sure I can handle that.
Does anyone else feel that way? Or am I alone in this particular neurosis?
13 Responses to “Is NaNo a NoNo?”
The cat, as they say, has already been let out of the bag on that front, Kath; you ARE a writer. Do you mean you’d fear using the share-a-scene NaNo option and show your work before it’s ready for the world? I think you can make as much of as little of NaNo as you’d like; you don’t even have to use your own name.
Who can chime in with good NaNo experience here? Eric?
I enjoyed NaNoWriMo the one time I participated. I finally got around to revising that novel for publication this past year, and has gotten good feedback so far (one rejection but the editor says she’s willing to reread if I revise with her comments, and another editor liked it enough to pass it up the chain to the head of the imprint).
I don’t consider NOT being able to write 50,000 words a failure. There are tons of writers who don’t meet that goal. I know many who enter just for the kickstart.
My NaNo experience was also good for me because I tend to over-edit as I write. This forced me to write a big chunk at once and THEN allow myself to edit.
It’s a valid question to ask, “I already write. I could do NaNo all by myself, in fact I do… it’s called my normal writing.”
That may be true. But NaNo is FUN! Much like blogging, you get to be involved in a community with similar goals.
There was a process I grew to enjoy during last year’s NaNo. I’d go to nanowrimo.org and upload my word count, then I’d surf the forums to see what people were talking about, then go back to my cave. There were a lot of interesting discussions.
Have you ever been somewhere where the creativity energy is high, and everybody is busy, their minds are racing, they’re sharing thoughts, riffing off one another, coming up with really cool questions and discussion, and then taking that back to the cave?
Well that was NaNo for me last year. That happens occasionally at my job making games, it happened on NaNo last year. I FEED off that. It’s a great vibe.
Never fret… if you get tired of the community, there’s always your cave to go back to! ;)
Oh, one more thing…
As for that ’secret’ you allude to… you still have that. Nobody knows what you’re writing until you write it. Just because you’re in NaNo doesn’t mean everyone knows exactly what you’re writing. It can still remain The Great Mystery of Kathleen until you publish it. :)
I don’t like anyone knowing anything about the story until I have made my fist revision pass. To me, writing is intimate, and only me and the novel intertwine until the complete story is birthed.
I was thinking of doing NaNo for the first time this year, but I don’t know much about it. I guess you are saying that what we write is public?
Some NaNo Facts from their site page HERE:
How NaNoWriMo Works (in Ten Easy Steps)
1) Sign up for the event starting October 1, 2006 by clicking the Sign up Now link.
2) After creating an account, log into it. Click “Edit Profile” in the top tab, and tell us about your writerly self. Then head to the “My NaNoWriMo” section and add a photo, choose some writing buddies, and pick a home region. This tells our computer which NaNoWriMo Regional Lounge to offer you in the forums, which local events calendar and photo links to show you on the Local Events page, and gets you CC’d on emails pertaining to any wild novelist gatherings going on in your area.
3) Begin your novel-planning procrastination by reading through all the great advice and funny stories in the forums. Post some stories and questions of your own. Get excited. Get nervous. Eat lots of chocolate and pamper yourself in preparation for the fiction-fueled escapade to come.
4) On November 1, begin writing your novel. Your goal is to write a 50,000-word novel by midnight, local time, on November 30th. You write on your own computer, using whatever software you prefer.
5) This is not as scary as it sounds.
6) Starting November 1 you can go to your My NaNoWriMo page to post excerpts of your work for others to read, and update your escalating word count.
Therese note: you CAN; I don’t think you have to.
7) Write like crazy for thirty days. If you write 50,000 words of fiction by midnight, local time, November 30th, you will be added to our hallowed Winner’s Page, and receive a handsome winner’s certificate and web icon. The adding of your name to the Honor Roll of Winners requires that you send in a version of your novel in text format (scrambled for security) to our site to be counted.
8) This is not as scary as it sounds either, and we’ll post step-by-step instructions on how to upload your novel to our team of superpowered computational robots (flown in from Germany every year) starting in mid-November.
9) Win or lose, you rock for even trying.
10) That’s it! If you have any questions, just check out our FAQs. And best of luck in November!
I hope that helps clarify some things. :)
This will be my fifth year doing NaNoWriMo. The positives that Eric outlines are absolutely true. Beyond that, however, I *like* telling people I’m undertaking the project. As November progresses, they only care about two things:
1. What’s the story about? (50 words or less, please, before eyes glaze over)
2. How’s the word count coming along?
Being asked both of these questions is very useful to me, actually. If I can’t summarize my plot in a sentence or two, then a warning bell goes off. And if I’m behind on my word count? Same thing.
Also, people tend to respect the time I set aside for writing more than usual. Maybe it’s because “50k in 30 days” is somehow more finite in others’ minds than “polishing a draft”.
As for the excerpt, I usually pick out a passage in the first few days, post it in my profile, and leave it alone for the next 25. That’s the extent of my out-of-the-ordinary sharing, and no one has ever noticed!
I’ve tried NaNo before – and both years I was in grad school. Not the best time to try. I plan to have my second novel finished by the end of this month, but have no idea what the next one would be to start in time for NaNo BECAUSE…
1) I have to move
2) I have a huge conference coming up that I, as president of my writing chapter, has to be on top of my game for
Those might be two giant excuses not to do NaNo. But honestly, I don’t know that I LIKE to do NaNo – I’ve sort of progressed to that whole thing of writing as much as I possibly can every day that I possibly can. Am I being unclear? Probably. I guess I don’t feel like I need another distraction for my writing – and I’d be very tempted to scour the writing forums over at NaNo instead of writing. I think I already spend enough time blogging or surfing the ‘Net (ostensibly for RESEARCH, of course ;)) that I don’t need yet another added distraction.
I hope some of that made sense.
I’ve never written anything before, and having a full time job while going to grad school part time, I was afraid to set my sights too high, but what I did do last year during NaNo (and through January) was to force myself to write a little each day.
And it worked. I wrote every day, and my story progressed, and I was pleased. And I kept it up until January, when we found out my husband was getting laid off, and I got freaked out and stressed out and depressed and stopped writing.
I’m still working on it, although not every day anymore. (I do actually have a pretty valid excuse: we’re remodeling our house so my grandmother can move in, and trying to do most of the work ourselves.)
But I think the thing about NaNo is that it gets people in the habit of writing, and that’s the only way to get better.
Michelle
I’m not sure what you mean when you say NaNo makes writing no longer a secret. It’s not like you have to tell anyone your real name or give them your address. Writing during nano is as anonymous as you want it to be. You can stay in your cave and still take part, you don’t have to tell anyone what you are doing.
i think it’s all about commitment. if you make this 30 day/50K wd. commitment to write, you can’t escape it – you’ve drawn your line in the sand and, by golly, you will cross it. it’s just that it’s public. not secret – so if you don’t make it, no one knows. but i think the point of NaNo is that you take the leap to publicly commit to your goal. and when you make it, everyone knows.
Thanks everyone! Gosh, Michelle K., I hope your husband’s back to work…how stressful for you.
I think I’m going to go for it. I thought the point of NaNo was to publically declare to the world that you’re writing so that the peer-pressure would help whip you through the month. Like who wants to say, “I did the first day and then blew the rest off.” No one. And if you lie at NaNo, you’re lying to yourself.
Plus it will give me something to bitch about here on the blog. ;)
Kathleen,
He did, in fact, find another job–in fact a better job–but it was a scary thing, and freaked me out for quite awhile afterwards.