Every Word is A good word

That's the great thing about NaNoWriMo—every word is a good word. When else can you say that? What other time do you get to write anything you want w/out worrying what anyone else will think? Freedom! I went to Barnes & Noble last night to listen to Chris Baty, founder of NaNoWriMo, talk about the “event,” why he does it, etc. It was great hearing him read his really bad dialogue—it was really bad, but that was the point. Mine is also really bad, but hey, it doesn't matter. He also gave some advice that I wish I'd heard may years ago because it makes terrific sense. He recommended that even if you don't write in a straight line from the beginning to the end of your book, it's a good idea to try to get a beginning scene, a middle, and an end. That way, you have a complete frame, and it's a lot easier to fill in the empty spaces later (like after NaNo if you get to 50k words and still want to work on it) than it is to make up that frame. I also have a tendency to reach a point in my novel where I start digging plot holes that go nowhere, but I feel stuck in them, like the only way out is to write my way out, which turns out to be mostly impossible, and therefore I get stuck in the hole and never finish the frame or anything else. This advice may prevent that kind of digging. At any rate, it will help give me some easy words, since I sort of have vague ideas of a middle and end and I'm sort of eager to write them. Maybe the next 10-20k words won't be so bad, after all. The evening w/Baty was kind of funny b/c when everyone got there we all sat around sort of quiet, maybe making half-hearted nervous conversation like “so how's your novel going?” I actually met some great people and we traded writing stories a bit, but as we waited for Baty to start talking, only a couple of people were using the time to add to their word counts. I know I could have easily put down an extra 500 words or so during the wait, but I felt self-conscious about pulling out my computer and tapping away. Then, after Baty had spoken for half an hour or whatever about what great craziness NaNo-ing is, the barriers and self-consciousness just melted away and everyone seemed eager to pull out the writing tools and start racking up the words. Like I said, that's a great thing about NaNo: it gives you license to be just a little crazy, less self-conscious, more free. Don't you wishi you were writing a novel this month? Hey, there's still time!

Posted November 12, 2004 08:53 AM | NaNoWriMo