NaNoWriMo ends at midnight tonight. NaNoWriMo ended for me about two weeks ago.
Instead of forcing myself to chip away at my novel, even though I might not make the goal of 50,000 words, I made the grand, illogical gesture of abandoning the whole thing until the month of November is over.
According to my screwy logic, I can start working on my novel again tomorrow.
Here’s part of my problem. Several of the NaNo chat rooms and advisory e-mails tout “padding” your novel so you meet the word count. One chick suggested never cutting, or if you do cut, just paste the cuts onto the end of the manuscript so you don’t lose a SINGLE word.
Does this strike any one else as an exercise in futility? I mean, I could easily write a couple thousand words a day if I wrote overly-full scenic descriptions or long, boring dialogue exchanges or every touch-rendered sex scenes. But is the point, really, just to write 50,000 words? For some people, perhaps. And I’m not saying it’s not an accomplishment. It is. Writing 50,000 words can be a great and wondrous thing.
But I’ve done that. I’ve already written two 80,000 word novels. And one of them I wrote without planning or much editing. And you know what? The novel sucks. I wrote myself into a big, gaping mudhole.
So, I realize that, while it would be nice for me to have 50,000 words written on this novel instead of a paltry 11,000, I’m not going to write words for words’ sake. I’m going to write as well as I can, not as long as I can. I’ll still have to go back and edit 15 times, but if I have a plan and some organization and I edit as I go, I have a MUCH better chance of having the end result be publishable. Some day, though not today.
For those of you who wrote 50,000 decent, well-organized words this month, congrats! I wish I could’ve done it. But I couldn’t. Unless I had an advance that made it possible for me only to work on my novel AND to hire a part-time hausfrau. Now that’s an idea…
UPDATE: According to the NaNo website, the total collective word count for November 2006 was 982,495,939. No word yet on how many of the 80,000 or so peeps who signed up actually made it to 50,000.
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The torture that is authorship. I just stick to blogging. It’s allows me to stay mentally healthy.
Whenever I think about putting something off to tomorrow, I have to use my best sighing, Southern accent and pray that Rhett is waiting for me nearby.
I could probably write a decent novel with 1,000 words or so. Just give me at least 2 months to complete it.
I mean…quality or quantity??
I tried too. I gave up after week one. I do have a great outline for a novel, but I don’t want my great novel to be encumbered by something as mundane as word count. I know it works for some people - I get that. It just doesn’t work for me. I actually think it doesn’t work for most and is a clever moneymaking ploy for the founders of the project. I mean the only book that has had any REAL success from it is a book ON NANOWRIMO. WTF!? Anyways, your blog is a novella of sorts … I wouldn’t want you to get too distracted.
Yeah, LBB, you are sooooooo mentally healthy on your bloggie!
Rio, you need a long red satin ball gown in order to be able to pull that off, methinks.
Go, Slick. I’ll publish your 1,000 word novel on Flasheville!
Don Mak, I think I’m in love!
I personally think you should have edited your 2nd novel and counted those 80,000 words….(Hint, hint). I know, shut up.
You’re supposed to write the entire 50,000 words in ONE month, Ptaak, not take words you’ve already written and revise them. That would be cheating. Yeah, and shut up.