Before I go all NaNoWriMo on you, I just wanted to remind you that, despite Hurricane Sandy’s best efforts, the NYC TOUCHING THE SURFACE Launch Party is on for TOMORROW!!!! Here’s the information if you can make it–and in case you’re wondering–I’d love for you to make it.
HOSTED BY:
John Sabatini
WHEN:
Thursday, November 8, 2012
7:00 PM – 9:00 PM
WHERE:
Asellina
420 Park Avenue South
New York NY 10014
*Books will be available for purchase and signing thanks to Mobile Libris.
Did I mention that I’d love to have you come? I really would!!!!
***********
Time to talk about a different kind of party–a virtual festivus of writing–NaNoWriMo. I started on the 11/1 and tomorrow will be one week into the 30 day race to have 50,000 words on the page. How am I doing? Well, I’m already behind LOL! I’ve written 4,852 words and at the pace I’m going, I’ll be lucky to be finished by 2013 LOL! But guess what–I don’t care. Are you wondering why? Let me tell you…
I’m not expecting to win.
Yes, you heard me correctly. Two days before the kick-off to NaNoWriMo–I launched my debut novel. *Squee* I have three boys under the age of eleven and all the laundry and mess that comes along with them. It’s ridiculous how I shop for food and they immediately EAT IT!!!! I basically work from SON up to SON down. *grin* Additionally, I have a dance recital in November, the end of the soccer season and that thing they call Thanksgiving. Oh, and I’m revising my second novel too. *head thunk* I can only do so much and the reality is I don’t get enough sleep as it is. Getting less doesn’t work for me. So I was never planning to stretch myself on the rack for not completing a full 50,000 words–rather I decided to participate because I just wanted to stretch myself. (Completely different than what happens on a medieval torture device.) The reality is, I’m 4,852 words into the first draft of my third novel. If I wasn’t doing NaNoWriMo I’d absolutely be ZERO words into my third novel. Without NaNo I would have convinced myself that I didn’t have any time to write until after the launch and revisions and laundry and food shopping and… You get my point. And even better, once I started writing, that old creative magic started coursing through my veins and I got excited and the brain cells in my head started to bump into each other again and characters began to come alive and now, even when I’m not writing, I have more to ponder for when I do.
In the process of writing those 4,852 words, I also discovered that I CAN’T write without some editing, but I’ve learned I can write a draft with less editing. Like Maggie Stiefvater (Her Annual Dear John Letter to NaNoWriMo) I’m going to have to stop to day dream in the middle of my writing. I don’t have to be paralyzed by being dreamy and thoughtful, I can absolutely pick up the pace a bit, but I also have to create in a way that is comfortable for me. I’m a putzing pantster. It’s who I am. It’s how I write–How I love to write. And why would I take something I love and deliberately make it into something I don’t love. That’s silly. So, I’m okay with not being a winner. I’ll be a wiener instead, but here’s the catch, even though I don’t expect to complete NaNoWriMO–there IS always the possibility that I might. I find possibility and potential to be addictive. And don’t forget the collective excitement. I like being a part of the energy–it makes me feel good. It feels like a writing party. And I love parties where I can participate from home on my couch with fuzzy socks on.
So, I guess I’m doing this, win or lose, but I’m doing it my way. I don’t know where I’ll be at the end of the second week, but I’ll keep you posted. The one sure thing is I’ll have fuzzy slippers on for most of the journey.
Are you participating in NaNoWriMo? How are you doing? What’s your take on NaNo? Time management? Inner editors? Couch parties in fuzzy socks? Kids who eat too much?
Subscribe via Email
I’m totally the same kind of NaNo writer, Kim – need to stop, edit, smell roses en route…but like you, most words so far (tho’ behind) are words I wouldn’t have written without it breathing (nicely) down my neck.
Have fun at your NYC launch! xox
Glad to know I’m not alone!!!!!
I’m up to my epaulets in revising my first novel, since I got requests from an editor and an agent at the writer’s conference I just attended. So, NaNoWriMo came at the exact wrong time for me. But I’m attending to my writer friends’ experiences more closely this year. In the past, it always sounded to me like an excuse for a lot of sloppy writing. But … now I’m thinking maybe it would be a healthy exercise in bludgeoning my inner editor (I’m also a professional editor, so my inner editor is pretty lively!) into at least taking a breather. 🙂
Woo Hoo! Congrats on the requests-thats fabulous!!!! I think its about balance. When it started to feel sloppy i backed off. I’m just happy to be motivated and devoting lots of hours to my writing. *throws away rule book*
Yay! 🙂 Well worth the price of admission! Next year … maybe … *dips figurative toe into figurative NaNoWriMo pool* I like your approach: if I do it, it’ll be that way!
:o)
Well, you know I’m participating, and it’s my tenth year. What I’m finding — this year more than ever — is that people are simply missing the spirit of NaNoWriMo and can be incredibly dismissive to those of us participating. I do believe strongly that everybody comes out a “winner” at the end (and yes, I’ll confess I think the whole “winner” business is quite silly) regardless of whether they write 1000 words during the month of November or 100,000. But one of the things I think so many people are forgetting is that this is a draft, nothing more, a shell. For the record, I’ll admit that I see nothing wrong with sloppy writing in a first draft. I’m a big proponent of just getting it down on paper.
A confession: I did find Stiefvater’s post pretty offensive. I don’t believe that adding a tag of “for me” to her opinion of the challenge makes it any less offensive. What she says is ultimately dismissive of the efforts of all those who’ve produced their novels through NaNoWriMo (some of whom, myself included, subsequently spent YEARS rewriting, revising, editing said books). And I’d add that one of the most beautiful books I’ve ever had the pleasure of reading, Sara Gruen’s Water for Elephants, was a NaNoWriMo novel.
But then, I should admit that my own efforts remain unagented and unpublished so perhaps I’m not the best person to speak. Maybe I should step aside and leave the opinions to the pros.
Thanks for a thought-provoking post, Kim.
Good point Lisa. I think in the end what it comes down to is KNOW THYSELF. In my opinion this means know how to stretch yourself and know what it means to stretch yourself too thin. My original master plan was to spend some time doing revisions on book 2, some time doing marketing for book 1 and some time doing NaNo drafting for book 3. Of course I did not factor in house hold chores because I don’t like them. *wrinkles nose* I have a competitive streak so I fully planned to nail this NaNo puppy to the floor by kicking my inner editor to the side, but I can’t. I don’t write that way. But I’ve given her a shove which has benefitted me tremendously. And I love being a participant so I feel as if I’m on the win side of this adventure, but I can see how some people might get wrapped up in the drive to cross the finish line at all costs. I think Maggie probably recognized that in herself. And I suspect, much like this blog post, is a preemptive strike against feeling like a failure. I think that NaNo is perfect for some, a challenge for others and a nemesis for just as many. Today I spent the afternoon working on revisions. I didn’t get as much done as I wanted to do AND I didn’t do any NaNo. But ya know what–I helped my 7 year old meet his word goal. So life is sweet.
I should amend what I said about Stiefvater’s post to say that in the end, I do believe in her right to her opinion and to say/write whatever she feels. It is a free country!
Ack! Didn’t mean to sound dismissive … only used the phrase “sloppy writing” to admit to my earlier, cavalier reaction, and to repent! 😉 I do “get” the notion that creating a “shell” of a story is of VAST importance, and if NaNoWriMo gets it done, then more power to ya!
Virginia–it is sloppy writing, but it’s supposed to be. It just depends on how that works for you. I once heard Laurie Halse Anderson speak about how she drafts and as much as I love and respect her–it made my skin crawl. LOL! She tends to work in lots of layers. I almost got hives when she said she puts things in like “insert converation here” etc….I don’t know what to write next if I don’t know what they just said. I still work in layers but each pass for me is slower and more detailed. But that works for me. So just like politics–we have to be aware that we all like it a different way and that’s ok. *grin*
I’m totally behind on my Kimmie Poppins reading!! Sorry about that, some LIFE intervened…
I love “working from son up to son down!” I do that too, and also with two daughters in the middle of it, whom we all revolve around, lol. I hope it’s OK with you if I borrow that cute little saying from to time to time?
I don’t NaNo for all those reasons you gave for why you don’t expect to finish. I did get excited on Oct. 30 and think for about five minutes that I could maybe do it and and then I’d be into the 1st draft of my third book too… and then I chickened out. Actually, I felt it was setting healthy boudaries for myself, but potato/ potahto, right? 😉
And, YES!!, they do eat it as soon as you buy it. I was in the store with my 1yr old yesterday, weighing sweet potatoes and he was all, “Sweet sweets! I eat sweets sweets?” And he hugged the bag all the way home, and cried until I made one for his lunch. Six pounds of sweet potatoes and not a one left after dinner last night when the older three came home and saw them. LOL, I guess I’ll make cheesecake instead of sweet potato pie for Turkey Day (unless they eat all the cream cheese on their toast before then…).
Good luck with the dance recital… or do we say break a leg?….I’m and old theatre geek. 😉
Gahhhh!!!!! FOUR!!!! They eat even more than three LOL! And healthy boundaries are good and I like constantly reinventing myself–which is another way of saying that I give myself permission to be who I’m being at the moment. It’s all part of the plan. right?
Right! 🙂