To NaNo, or not to NaNo...

Oh Monday, you've been gone for a week. I wish you'd stay gone.

There are people all over the interwebs right now, arguing about the usefulness (or lack thereof) in NaNoWriMo. Some people are out there saying that the entire exercise is pointless, a giant waste of time. Others argue that it is about learning and building habits that are useful to every writer...

hmmm... Let's look at something from the NaNoWriMo website, CLICK ME IF YOU WANT TO GO THERE

"Make no mistake: You will be writing a lot of crap. And that's a good thing. By forcing yourself to write so intensely, you are giving yourself permission to make mistakes. To forgo the endless tweaking and editing and just create. To build without tearing down."

I think the bigger arguments, for and against NaNo are built around this bit of info. The NaNo naysayers argue that, "writing a lot of crap" is a giant waste of time for thousands of people. Also, the fact that NaNo is an event made entirely for people that want to write a novel seems to invalidate everything done therein.

umm, who else should "National Novel Writing Month" be geared to?

Sorry folks, I am wholly on one side of this argument. You'll get no unbiased blogging here, and I'm not even a participant!

NaNoWriMo is for people interested in writing. If you're not interested, you probably don't know what it is, and probably don't care. I'm ok with that, you don't need to care.

Take me for instance, I am not a chef. If there is a "National Cook Your Heart Out" week, or NaCoYoHoWe, I am not interested. Even if most of what is cooked in that month tastes like dirty pants. I don't have to taste it, or even know how cooking shoes can help to make you a better chef. I do understand, however, that if NaCoYoHoWe helps one person to become a better Chef, then it is worth it. Especially to that one person.

I have written crap. You have probably also written crap. Therefore, WE have written crap, without a reason, and possibly without any encouragement or hope of making that crap better. NaNoWriMo gives a reason, encouragement, and hope to lots and lots of people.

It also might help people to realize that they are not writers, and that's ok too. Why waste years thinking about writing a novel, if after a week, you hate pens and paper and computers and everything that has to do with writing?

NaNo can also help people to become better and more disciplined. I know that making writing a part of your daily routine can be very hard to do, and if this project helps with that, then I'm sure you'll think that it was worth it. Even if everything you write this month really is crap.

Blah... wow that was a lot of soapboxin... sorry about that.

To the NaNoers out there, good luck :)
To everyone else, good luck as well :)

Thanks for reading,
buh bye then

NaNoWriMo, maybe next year...

So if you can't tell by looking at my blogroll (over to your right) I follow quite a few blogs here. Most of them are writing-centered, but a few are real life friends. We're not talking about those today (sorry guys, you know I love you). No, today I'm going to talk, just a very little bit, about a project that a bunch of the writers I've met here are into.

NaNoWriMo (means National Novel Writing Month) is this great project that gets folks to write a novel. People that have been kicking around story ideas, and always wanted to write... something, are encouraged to join. It runs from November 1st through November 30th, and the participants have that time to, well... write a novel. It sounds pretty fun, and if I'd have known about it earlier, I might have even joined in. However, I am currently already writing a novel (which doesn't count because it's already started, and it's destined to me much more than 50,000 words, which is the project word count), and I will be starting revisions on The City after November 1st.

So why am I writing about it if I'm not involved? Because it's rad. If you've ever had the idea to write a novel, or even just have a story kicking around in your old skull factory, you should do this. Take the month, get something on the paper. It doesn't have to be great, the project is all about quantity, not quality. In my own writing experience, one of my biggest hurtles was learning to write daily, and I think NaNoWriMo would be a great tool to get someone started on the habit.

Want to know more?
CLICK ME

Now onto my own stuff :)
Daily word count is still functioning properly! I think that 500 words a day is the perfect mark for my schedule, and it feels great to have forward motion every day (which is something I struggled with a lot while writing The City).

Clockwork Charlie is up to a whopping, 6,044 words! I know that doesn't seem huge, but it feels great, and it still seems like I just started. I think I'll also have a general outline to post on my WIP page soon... ish :)

I've spent all of October staying away from The City, waiting for the crits to come rolling in, and after November 1st I'll be starting revisions. Very excited to look at this story with some fresh eyes.

I think that's it, for now,
thanks for tuning in,
buh bye then