NaNo My WriMo

Contrary to what the past several content-less posts might indicate, I have not abandoned Ye Old Rib. I’ve just been a sinking deeper and deeper these past two weeks into the following sources of blog-stunting insanity:

1. The holiday season has unofficially begun and I work in e-commerce. Nuff said.

2.

No, it’s not an obscure ethnic holiday - it’s National Novel Writing Month, an exercise in literary insanity: an attempt at a 50,000-word novel in 30 days.

The rewards for making it to the finish line? A shitty first draft, a year’s worth of bragging rights and a one more check on the To-Do-Before-I’m-Dead list.

Truth be told, I don’t read a lot of fiction these days, let alone write it. But I used to devour it and by age twelve had already written a respectable-sized novel, a mystery starring a teenage sleuth named Deenie. (I guess the apple doesn’t fall very far from the tree).

I can certainly still get lost in a good yarn, and I’ve dabbled in creative writing off and on (some of which I’ve even liked). But these days my efforts consist of Ribby rants and while this is worthwhile and creative, I am usually not just making shit up.

So I am a little rusty on the making-shit-up stuff and correspondingly insecure about it, which is exactly why NaNoWriMo is perfect.

Let me explain. No, there is too much. Let me sum up.¹

It is scientifically proven² that many writers never get past the would-be stage. This is because they are utter slaves to their sadistic Inner Editor. Everyone has an IE. Our IE loves to stop us at every third word or so and beat us about the head and shoulders as it cackles a litany of our inadequacies.

Eventually, even the most inspired of would-bes gets tired of the abuse and gives up. Surrender, Dorothy.

Enter NaNoWriMo, antidote.

To write a 50,000-word novel in 30 days requires the exiling of one’s IE. The writer simply does not have time to fuck around with hoity-toity revision when they have to crank out a down-n-dirty 1,666.66666 words per day.

The “low stress, high velocity” ethos of NaNoWriMo gives the writer the necessary motivation to put the IE in its place — which is to say a sound-proofed closet somewhere equipped with a stack of high school final papers, a juicy red pen, and a lot of bile. Happier than tornado in a trailer park!

Meanwhile, the would-be blossoms into writer through the transformative power of imagination, hard work, and lots of caffeine. So what if the finished product is a 50,000-word outline that needs six months of revision to be readable? Your bloodied three sentences are so much better?

Ok, now I’ll really sum up: NaNoWriMo is about not taking one’s self too seriously. And who couldn’t use a month-long exercise in that?

National Novel Writing Month does not officially start until November 1, but there’s plenty of planning and panicking to be done before that. I’ve been giving myself a crash-course how to write fiction - you know, little stuff like characters and plot development. ³ It’s been a while since I had homework every night, and it’s going to get exponentially worse before it gets better.

Which means Thanksgiving will entail horking down my meal, praying the tryptophan turkey bullet misses, and retreating from the warm circle of family to the solitude of my writing desk (best Thanksgiving ever!).

It also means that Rib posts are likely to remain a bit sporadic throughout November. However, I still plan to do my annual “Thanks Giving Month” theme, in which every post expresses my gratitude for the fabulous in life.

It also means when my revised novel hits the best-seller list, you can all say, “I read her when.” Pre-orders, anyone?

Technorati Tags: NaNoWriMo, writing

1. Inigo Montoya, The Princess Bride. You killed my father. Prepare to die. [↩]
2. Ibid. [↩]
3. Shit I apparently already knew by the time I wrote my Deenie mystery. Yeah, sure, it sounded an awful lot like all those Trixie Belden books I read, but that just proves I ‘m a fast learner. [↩]

Filed under Gollum Lives, Uppity Me, Writing |