I wasn’t going to mention NaNo this year. I swear. But TIME started it, by referencing my No No NaNoWriMo sentiments of previous years, so I guess you can blame the mainstream media.
NaNoWriMo: Is National Novel Writing Month a Literary Threat or Menace?
I’m not the only one who views NaNo with trepidation or a jaundiced eye. Check out some of the quotes from the other naysayers. Author Graeme McMillan comes out on the side of NaNo, despite it all. He’s wrong, of course. While I’ve mellowed and no longer think NaNo is a scourge upon the face of literature, I still think it’s a bad way to try to write a novel. And if you are doing NaNo, just stop it. Don’t kid yourself. Write your novel but don’t gimmick it up. Take it seriously, take joy in the work, create — you don’t need the NaNo hype.
So there you have it — the NaNo continues.
In other news, I was away last week and sick-ish* this week, hence the blog silence. I used my time away to get some quality writing time in along the Frio River in the Texas Hill Country. Let me tell you, there is something about writing on a porch overlooking the beautiful Frio, the trees changing color as faintly as they do here in Texas (it’s more subdued than in the north but is still lovely, like Lothlorien, all gold and fading green).
This trip is an annual one — one of my friends organizes it and calls it Mommy Camp. There is a “bad mommy” cabin and a “quiet” cabin. I had the best of both worlds. I roomed in the quiet cabin (and wrote on the porch there) and hung out at the bad mommy cabin, and all in all, it worked out well.
Now I’m feeling well, going to see Pagliacci tonight and so looking forward to it, you have no idea. This is Austin Lyric Opera‘s production.
*Not enough to keep from going to work, just enough to sap my energy
2 Comments
Melanie · November 20, 2012 at 9:45 am
I happen to disagree with you. NANOWRIMO is the only reason I wrote my second book. I’m getting out there now, published it, I’m doing tv interviews and podcasts and book signings. My goal is to be on Ellen. I couldn’t have done any of this without NANOWRIMO, not this fast at least. Having a deadline is great. I’m doing it again this year, but my book is hopefully going to be at least 70,000 words instead of 50,000. Yes, my book was rough and horrible after nano, but I edited a million times and i got it done. I couldn’t edit without a book. So I disagree. I’m doing nano this year and I plan on doing it for a very long time. I love it, it’s great fun. -Going To Be Big Moffitt
Patrice Sarath · November 20, 2012 at 6:10 pm
Congratulations on your writing career–I’m glad you found NaNo helpful. I’m also very glad that you took the time to edit your novel and didn’t just send it out to editors or agents in December.
It’s really important in all of this to remember that each writer chooses the path that works best for them.