I signed up to do NaNoWriMo in November. No it isn't something related to a flesh eating virus. It stands for National Novel Writing Month and is a month long dare to write every day and eventually finish writing 50,000 words before the end of the month.
I failed.
I have a raft of excuses that I could float out. Probably it was more than idealistic to try to combine writing a novel and prepping for moving in the same month. I found that it was far harder than I realized to discipline myself to sitting down and writing. On the other hand I found that I thought more about what I wanted to write about than I had in a very long time. For ages I've had a story idea floating around in the back of my head, in such a formless state that calling it amoeba like would be a compliment.
One thing that did come clearly into focus is that while I have some prospectively vivid characters in my head, I don't really have a good solid conflict to write about. I'm not sure if this reflects a reluctance to throw really ugly things at my fictional creations or if it is a sign that for all the stress in my life, it is really pretty conflict free.
I also learned that I should go with what sets the stage for the most lively writing. Early on I had what felt like a brilliant and exciting idea. I made the mistake of asking other people what they thought. They couldn't get past the absurdity of the premise to see the potential in what would happen next. So I tried to make it smaller and more understandable. But I think that in the process I ended up gutting it too much.
I'm going back to that first, shiney idea that had inspired me and made me giggle and twirl my fingers in anticipation. So what if it is improbable and if you can come of with a list of reasons why it probably wouldn't happen that way in real life. This is my fictional story after all, not real life. Beginning in medias res, I am skipping over the hows and whys of the crisis and going straight to what happens to the people because of it.
I'm intending to keep writing. I may even be able to salvage some of what I wrote in November. I actually had a notebook out for some jotings while teh packers were here. I don't know if I'll be done in December or January or even in time for next November's NaNoWriMo. But I will be writing.
3 comments:
My son and I are reading Ray Bradbury's, "The Zen of Writing". It has really helped me get "into" a real author's head. He is so down to earth and practical in this book that I can feel a change in how I am approaching writing and other things in my life. I have no ambition to write a novel but I do like to write. He says you need to develop a NEED to write, zeal.
It is worth reading.
I love Bradbury's writing about the writing craft. I think I did read that book many years ago. I recently listened to a podcast of a talk he gave describing his early writing and how he came to write Fahrenheit 451 on the rental typewriters in the basement of his downtown library.
I don't know if the books are still this format, but writer's digest used to publish an annual writer's guide and literary market book. The second half was listings of places that might publish your writing, especially freelance articles and short fiction. But the first half was chapter after chapter of essays about writing by real, well known published authors.
One of the problems I have with many of the creative writing books is they seem to be written by people who aren't known for their writing. So I'd much rather read just a chapter by someone like Tony Hillerman than a whole book by someone who hasn't had the experience of writing and writing, even when they didn't feel like it, just because that's what they did as serious authors.
I failed the NaNoWriMo, 50,000 word challenge this year as well. I'm glad to know I'm in good company! Good luck with your writing pursuits :)
Post a Comment