Thursday, October 13, 2011

So. I just signed up for NaNoWriMo, despite my having always shied away from it in the past. Frankly, it's darned intimidating. Years ago, I wrote about 35,000 words on my current novel and have barely touched it since. On the one hand, I've never written lots of words in short bursts. On the other, my novel will never be done at this rate. Recently I sat down to work on it and wrote only one line, for goodness' sake. The current word count is 36,800, or about half the length of my first three novels.

It's not clear if NaNoWriMo is right for me, but November will be a good month to glue my butt to the chair and crank out the rest of the first draft. Was it the great Lawrence Block who wrote that the best guideline for getting writing done was "ass in chair"? It was either him or someone else--how's that for narrowing it down? It will be okay to write a crappy first draft, by the way. At least for me, second drafts are much easier because there is something to work with. It's getting past the terror of the blank page, because words I can see are easier to fix that words I can't see. And waiting one more year won't work, because 2012 will be busy in other ways. I'll always be able to fit revisions.

Have you participated in NaNoWriMo? How well has it worked for you?

8 comments:

Virginia said...

I have never done it, but my daughter did it last year and has signed up again for this year. She is not a published author, but she has been writing for most of her life, so maybe someday. Hope it works out well for you.

Virginia B

L. Diane Wolfe said...

I've never done it. I'm in the middle of editing a book right now so won't be able to do it this year, either.

Marian Allen said...

I've done--and won--NaNo several times. The rough drafts are still sitting around, rough. They're going to be a series all taking place in a neighborhood but featuring different families, so I need to get a bunch of them roughed out so I can smooth them all together.

I plan to do another one this year. It's SO MUCH FUN! I'm usually a very slow writer, and a month of headlong, breathless word-tossing is very good for me. :)

Marian Allen
Fantasies, mysteries, comedies, recipes

Murees Dupè said...

I shy away from it too, but you did well. Good luck this year.

Bish Denham said...

I've done NaNo two or three times. Got to 50K twice.

Thanks for joining up on my bloghop Bob!

Jayne said...

I've never done it but think it's a great concept, and from what I see there is a lot of support out there when you sign up. The support is probably what attracts me most, but sadly the planets have never aligned long enough for me in November to allow me to join in!

nutschell said...

Hello! dropping by from Bish Denham's blog hop.
was hoping to see a Halloween ghost story, but I"m happy to have found your blog just the same.
I've never done nanowrimo, but I did do my own version of it last August. It's crazy trying to finish a novel in a month, but definitely doable!

nutschell
www.thewritingnut.com

Bob Sanchez said...

Hi Nutschell, I do have a ghost story at Red Room: http://redroom.com/member/bob-sanchez/blog/nothing-that-needed-eyes. Maybe I'll post it on my own blog as well.