Anybody want a first draft of 50,000 words by December 1? NaNoWriMo is coming. And if you need a translation, that’s National Novel Writing Month, during which thousands of writers all over the world bang out 1,500 words a day, come hell, high water, or any other conceivable obstruction. Is there a “winner?” No. Does it matter if the resulting mass of narrative is any good? No. There are no demands, no possible ways to fail. Except one–you just don’t get it done. Not even with “bunny rabbit, bunny rabbit” or “all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy” over and over to top off your day’s work. So why not throw myself in?
Every year I toy with the idea–after all, it’s been well over 10 years since I published a novel. Time to ring the bell again if I’m serious, right?
The thing is (this will sound odd) even to produce that much CRAP takes a leap of faith in oneself. I mean, for years I’ve gone on unsuccessful quests to lose 5 pounds, but I just can’t tolerate a diet of nonfattening foods for more than 3 days. Is it reasonable to think that I’ll stick to a “diet” of 1,500 words a day FOR 30 DAYS?
Well, maybe it is. Maybe it’s more than reasonable, maybe it’s smart! Maybe total immersion is really the way to get things DONE, dammit!
Then again, I’m awfully busy (ever heard that one?). There are a number of hungry animals in my life, including my dog, my cats, this blog, and my lemon dessert passion, that must be fed first…or must they?
Well, you see what I’m going through over NaNoWriMo, and I go through it every year. Am I in or am I out? Stay tuned.
What about you?
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Bill, I’ve got to disagree with you on this one! — well, partially! Can one write a “publishable” novel in 30 days…the answer is an overwhelming “NO!” That being said, I think one can absolutely write a book in 30 days with extreme discipline as long as they know it is a very fragile draft that will then take many moons to get into a real workable format. The writer has to think of it as a losely told story that has many, many flaws and much of it, in the end, will find refuge in the waste basket. But, the underlying story may well be there on paper (or in the computer) free from the depths of the writer’s brain — which for most writer-wanna-be’s (and I don’t mean that in a critical way) that’s where the story remains.
So if you think you have a story stuck in your brain, have at…go for it. As long as you remember that it’s your deadline, there is no one standing holding a sledgehammer over your head. If you don’t make the deadline, you’re not a failure…as long as you got something on paper, then it was worth it — even if you toss it in the end. If you only get one nugget from all that work, it’s a nugget you didn’t have before. And maybe you have more than a nugget, maybe you have the beginnings of some interesting characters, some assemblance of a plot — who know? No one will if you don’t give it a try. For some it is such a deadline that gets the fires burning!
I don’t see where we disgree, Anne. (And how nice to be able to say that!) No one expects a publishable novel to emerge from the NaNoWriMo process– certainly not NaNoWriMo, who go to great pains to assure everyone that success here equals nothing more than clocking your 1,500 words a day for 30 days. For someone who has only dreamed about “someday writing a novel” but never done it, a 50,000 word rough draft would be a giant leap forward in the agenda of his or her life. And if it sucks? Well, at least the floor has been laid. I see it as a kind of shock tactic for GETTING STARTED–and for many of us, getting started is the ultimate challenge. Goethe, who was very productive, knew how important just starting was. He wrote: “Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it.”
That said, however, you’re right to caution that a 30 day blitzkrieg is unlikely to produce a publishable novel. There is too much detail work that must go on behind the scenes–or BELOW the surface–before characters are fully known and authentically motivated and situations well enough developed in the writer’s own mind to be acceptable story material. But as you say yourself: “…as long as you got something on paper, then it was worth it — even if you toss it in the end. If you only get one nugget from all that work, it’s a nugget you didn’t have before. And maybe you have more than a nugget, maybe you have the beginnings of some interesting characters, some assemblance of a plot — who knows? No one will if you don’t give it a try.”
I work in theater, and I heard a story about a big Broadway director, I think it was George Abbot, who was called in to save a musical. His first day, he sat down in the back when they were blocking out a dance scene. The choreographer and dancers were standing around when he came in, in the midst of thinking through a problem. Abbott yelled out from the back of the theater “why are you just standing there?”
They told him there was a problem. “Then do something, anything, even if it’s wrong” he said. “How can you get anywhere at all if you don’t start somewhere?”
Years ago I was apprentice film editor to a New York documentary editor named Bill Greaves. When constructing a sequence he wasn’t afraid to first put it together in the most prosaic, corny fashion. Then he’d make some changes. Then try a new concept. And so on. In the end, he was meticulous, sometimes spending hours on getting a series of cuts exactly right. But in the beginning, he just slapped something up there FAST. Because he knew it was only a first step–yet without that first step, nothing else would happen.
RANDOM TANGENT: Bill learned to edit at the National Film Board of Canada, under the tutelage of Wolf Koenig–who learned from the master, Robert Flaherty. When Koenig couldn’t decide which one of several possible ways to use a piece of film, he concluded it just wasn’t strong enough to use AT ALL. He would announce, “When in doubt throw it out,” and back it would go, in the bin forever. Bill did all this too but with one bizarre variation. After “when in doubt throw it out,” he would walk over to the 16th story window and physically toss the piece of film into oblivion.
I successfully finished NaNoWriMo in 2002, and have since decide to quit while I was ahead. It was my first attempt at a novel, and that tome is justifiably buried in a landfill somewhere. That said, I learned a lot about the process, even though most of what I learned was how not to write a novel.
I love the low-stress deadline to writing a novel. For beginners, the biggest obstacles are starting the thing, and once it’s started, to see the thing through when ideas stop flowing.
Bill, I think you may as well go ahead. Though you’re certainly no beginner, if it’s been so long since you’ve written a novel, I think this is a perfect excuse to try out an idea and see if it has legs.
However, if you prefer a more cynical outlook on NaNoWriMo, the website “101 Reasons to Stop Writing” says, “Putting 50,000 words in nonrandom order in 30 days makes you a “writer” in exactly the same sense that changing a hundred lightbulbs makes you an electrician.”
I understand the cynicism about the NaNoWriMo process, but the lightbulb analogy is misleading. No one believes changing lightbulbs could make you an electrician, any more than waiting tables will make you a chef. Certainly NaNoWriMo understands this. You don’t hear them even hinting that piling up your words every day is a way to get better. Everyone can have different reasons for doing it (I like that). And all of them are “good” reasons. Mine is to shock myself back to work AS A NOVELIST. And you’re right, Bill, I’ve been down that road before. It took me 5 years to finish I KILLED HEMINGWAY, so I know that 30 days will just barely get me into the ballpark. But right now, for me, that’s exactly the point.