View RSS Feed

IJustMadeThatUp

NaNoWriMo -Thoughts?

Rate this Entry
November is coming up and that means so is NaNoWriMo. I'm thinking about doing it this year. For a good chunk of November, I will be residing in a small, holiday town. I'll be flying daily to a nearby island and picking up wildlife for translocation. They'll be flown to an in-land sanctuary and then I'll fly back to the town each day. This will leave me with free afternoons/evenings, and I was trying to decide what to do with myself besides walking, swimming, reading, watching movies and cooking dinner. A NaNoWriMo article popped up on my feed, and reminded me of this 'writing month' I had a vague understanding of. Looking into it further it seems a great Kickstarter for tragics like me that secretly would love to write something but are paralysed by self-doubt and fear of failure. From what I understand, it is meant to be crap, well not utter crap, but it's not meant to be perfect. It's all about getting the word count up so that you have something to come back and edit in December (or whenever you can bear to look at your own writing again).

Reading articles about it, there are critics, but the criticisms seem to be more about "authors" mismanaging their expectations i.e. thinking the end of November will find you with a publishable novel - not an ugly accumulation of words and ideas that may be shaped and honed into something passable (maybe even good?). There is a lot more praise for NaNoWriMo on the internet: as a great way for author-hopefuls to get started and develop their skills. And in my case to get my butt motivated, stop wondering and just give it a crack.

I've pulled out my books on writing and am planning to plan this novel - yes that's the kind of person I am, hah.

Has anybody attempted and/or completed this challenge? What was your experience? Do you think there is value in it, and why? And do you have any tips?
Categories
Uncategorized

Comments

  1. kiz_paws's Avatar
    I have never been involved with this, but I wanted to wish you the very best of luck in it. Go for it, girl! You only live once.
    ~K♥zzo