Why Nanowrimo?
Oct. 31st, 2005 10:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
livingdebI am participating in nanowrimo this month for two main reasons.
The first is to see if I can write fiction. I think I am the type who is good at nonfiction, not fiction. But I might be wrong about that. It seems like after participating all month, I will have some pretty good data on whether I can write fiction.
The second reason is the whole deadline/peer thing. If I ever wanted to try writing a novel, now would be a good time to try. I often do things that are not on the top of my list of things to do just because the time is right. For example, I have traveled to various foreign countries when I had friends there who had already figured out many things the hard way (and who also gave me a free place to hang out). I used to think of it as social parasitism, but now I think it may be symbiotic.
As the month approaches, I'm also realizing that doing anything this odd can lead to unpredictable learning as well. Some people learn skills they can then apply in other parts of their lives such as how to push themselves. Maybe I'll pick up one of those.
**
I finished On Writing. Near the end King talks about when he was hit by a car. So now I feel wrong criticizing the book, like I'm kicking a man when he's down.
Fortunately I found some things to like about the book. At the end he has an excerpt of a first draft of his, which I thought was well-written. (Except that I couldn't tell what was going on, but it's one of those things where you're supposed to find this out gradually.) Then he had the same excerpt with all of the editing he did on his first pass. I did think most of the editing improved the writing.
Mostly he was following a rule an editor told him: he should delete 10% from any first draft. When he only said that, I couldn't tell if King was overly wordy or if this was supposed to be a general rule. Now I know--King is no more wordy than I am, probably less so. I've never found it difficult to shrink writing down, but looking at the example, I can see additional methods for doing so.
When writing, you should always have an audience in mind. Many authors say to make yourself your audience--if you like it, someone else is bound to. If even you don't like it, then that's more of a risk, right? But King recommends choosing a specific other person who likes the kinds of things you're writing. In his case, it's his wife. When he's wondering how he's doing, he just imagines how his wife would respond to his writing, and this gives him extra ideas. That's good.
It's interesting that he doesn't use this advice with character building. He says all characters are basically different versions of himself--what he would be like in various different circumstances. But many of us do have other voices in our heads--we know just what our mothers would say in certain situations, or our best friends, or our favorite TV hero. It seems like we could take advantage of these viewpoints, too, both for character building and for imagining an audience.
But much of the advice consists of platitudes without such detail, or any detail. And it doesn't help that I've read much of it before from other sources.
**
Tonight I went to the kickoff party for nanowrimo participants in the Austin area. I saw two people I know. One I knew would be participating, but she is actually signed up as two people trying to write two novels. Yikes! The other is someone I met at my neighborhood's writing circle. He writes really, really well.
In general, I got the impression of boisterous self-obsessed people with no regard for quality. One total stranger in a kilt hugged me. No one mentioned whether they liked the novels they had written during previous years. When someone won a thesaurus for a door prize, someone said he could up his word count by including lists of synonyms when he would normally use a single word. One person wrote into his novel and killed off every nanowrimer who dissed him last year, and apparently dissing this guy is a very popular activity. Other people have pledged to include penguins, bowling alleys, etc., because these are in for some reason.
I was impressed with one guy, though. Didn't catch his name. First he described himself as a guy who never does anything artistic, but after losing various bets is being forced to participate. Yet he had very pretty sparklies on his face (part of his Halloween costume). This is the guy who won the thesaurus. He said he could have a character who stutters, but different synonyms come out until he gets the right one. Now that could be funny.
We also created "plot ninjas," sealed them in envelopes, and exchanged them for use in an emergency. A plot ninja is a plot development that comes out of nowhere. The example given was that your main character wakes up in a strange room with his or her clothing missing. The idea is that when you get blocked in your writing, you open your envelope and pull out your plot ninja. Ideally, this will spark something and let you continue.
Overall I'm not too excited about the group. It could be because it was too big (I'm not a fan of crowds) and because lots of people seemed to know each other already (the high school vibe). I've told myself I'm going to attend at least one of the write-ins early on (in case I like them and want to go to more), but my guess is that I will much prefer to write alone.
We also got "swag." This is a term I've run across in one other place, a website for a convention for web journallors. Apparently people make little things, souvenirs I guess, and exchange them at the event. A few people were making mix CDs, and some people were making small crafts. In this case, the swag came from nanowrimo central. We got a pen and a small notebook and some hints for success. My favorite is the nanowrimo official participant sticker, which I plan to stick onto a magnet so I can put it on my fridge. I also got some shiny stars. I've decided to add one star for every 10,000 words I write. Isn't that so juvenile? But also sparkly!
**
My apologies for any brain owies I caused to those who read my previous entry yesterday--I know fraeuleinchen was one of the unlucky ones. I didn't spend enough time editing before I ran off to another social engagement. It's much safer to read now.
The first is to see if I can write fiction. I think I am the type who is good at nonfiction, not fiction. But I might be wrong about that. It seems like after participating all month, I will have some pretty good data on whether I can write fiction.
The second reason is the whole deadline/peer thing. If I ever wanted to try writing a novel, now would be a good time to try. I often do things that are not on the top of my list of things to do just because the time is right. For example, I have traveled to various foreign countries when I had friends there who had already figured out many things the hard way (and who also gave me a free place to hang out). I used to think of it as social parasitism, but now I think it may be symbiotic.
As the month approaches, I'm also realizing that doing anything this odd can lead to unpredictable learning as well. Some people learn skills they can then apply in other parts of their lives such as how to push themselves. Maybe I'll pick up one of those.
**
I finished On Writing. Near the end King talks about when he was hit by a car. So now I feel wrong criticizing the book, like I'm kicking a man when he's down.
Fortunately I found some things to like about the book. At the end he has an excerpt of a first draft of his, which I thought was well-written. (Except that I couldn't tell what was going on, but it's one of those things where you're supposed to find this out gradually.) Then he had the same excerpt with all of the editing he did on his first pass. I did think most of the editing improved the writing.
Mostly he was following a rule an editor told him: he should delete 10% from any first draft. When he only said that, I couldn't tell if King was overly wordy or if this was supposed to be a general rule. Now I know--King is no more wordy than I am, probably less so. I've never found it difficult to shrink writing down, but looking at the example, I can see additional methods for doing so.
When writing, you should always have an audience in mind. Many authors say to make yourself your audience--if you like it, someone else is bound to. If even you don't like it, then that's more of a risk, right? But King recommends choosing a specific other person who likes the kinds of things you're writing. In his case, it's his wife. When he's wondering how he's doing, he just imagines how his wife would respond to his writing, and this gives him extra ideas. That's good.
It's interesting that he doesn't use this advice with character building. He says all characters are basically different versions of himself--what he would be like in various different circumstances. But many of us do have other voices in our heads--we know just what our mothers would say in certain situations, or our best friends, or our favorite TV hero. It seems like we could take advantage of these viewpoints, too, both for character building and for imagining an audience.
But much of the advice consists of platitudes without such detail, or any detail. And it doesn't help that I've read much of it before from other sources.
**
Tonight I went to the kickoff party for nanowrimo participants in the Austin area. I saw two people I know. One I knew would be participating, but she is actually signed up as two people trying to write two novels. Yikes! The other is someone I met at my neighborhood's writing circle. He writes really, really well.
In general, I got the impression of boisterous self-obsessed people with no regard for quality. One total stranger in a kilt hugged me. No one mentioned whether they liked the novels they had written during previous years. When someone won a thesaurus for a door prize, someone said he could up his word count by including lists of synonyms when he would normally use a single word. One person wrote into his novel and killed off every nanowrimer who dissed him last year, and apparently dissing this guy is a very popular activity. Other people have pledged to include penguins, bowling alleys, etc., because these are in for some reason.
I was impressed with one guy, though. Didn't catch his name. First he described himself as a guy who never does anything artistic, but after losing various bets is being forced to participate. Yet he had very pretty sparklies on his face (part of his Halloween costume). This is the guy who won the thesaurus. He said he could have a character who stutters, but different synonyms come out until he gets the right one. Now that could be funny.
We also created "plot ninjas," sealed them in envelopes, and exchanged them for use in an emergency. A plot ninja is a plot development that comes out of nowhere. The example given was that your main character wakes up in a strange room with his or her clothing missing. The idea is that when you get blocked in your writing, you open your envelope and pull out your plot ninja. Ideally, this will spark something and let you continue.
Overall I'm not too excited about the group. It could be because it was too big (I'm not a fan of crowds) and because lots of people seemed to know each other already (the high school vibe). I've told myself I'm going to attend at least one of the write-ins early on (in case I like them and want to go to more), but my guess is that I will much prefer to write alone.
We also got "swag." This is a term I've run across in one other place, a website for a convention for web journallors. Apparently people make little things, souvenirs I guess, and exchange them at the event. A few people were making mix CDs, and some people were making small crafts. In this case, the swag came from nanowrimo central. We got a pen and a small notebook and some hints for success. My favorite is the nanowrimo official participant sticker, which I plan to stick onto a magnet so I can put it on my fridge. I also got some shiny stars. I've decided to add one star for every 10,000 words I write. Isn't that so juvenile? But also sparkly!
**
My apologies for any brain owies I caused to those who read my previous entry yesterday--I know fraeuleinchen was one of the unlucky ones. I didn't spend enough time editing before I ran off to another social engagement. It's much safer to read now.