Week Two Woopty Doo

Working on the novel, slowly inching my way, 100, 900, 2000 words a day. I sit down to write .... What the heck should I say? But you know the saying, about no work and all play. These comments at Stay of Execution (from commenter “Matt” of Second Person Singular) perfectly capture one of the best things about creative writing:

...i've never written a page on which something unexpected didn't happen, i've never had any creative work merely assume the form i expected before beginning, there is always serendipity, the unexpected, something ....more than i was aware of when i set out...be it painting, or cartooning, or designing buildings, or writing... and those moments, come to think of it, are usually the most wonderful occasions in the piece, they are the strong points.

It's true. I'm sure if I ever sat down to edit and rewrite these drafts I've tapped out in the course of past NaNoWriMos I would find that the only parts worth saving are the parts I had never even thought about until they appeared on the page. The serendipity of the unexpected is not always welcome, though. I often have this problem where I'm writing along and a character develops some habit or tic or does something that requires explanation, and that sends me on some tangent, and that often creates new scenes and characters that I don't know what to do with. And I think this is where some theories of writing say you should just go with it, follow your characters where they lead you. And that's fine, but I don't see how I'll ever get a story out of it. At some point you have to impose some discipline on that rampant serendipity, give it some shape, put up some fences and force it to roam around in a more limited area. If you don't, you'll end up writing endlessly and creating creating creating something that no one, including yourself, will ever be able to read. The great thing about NaNoWriMo, though, is that you don't have to worry too much about those fences, that discipline. Not this month. I mean, you can if you want, but there's no pressure to do so. It's all about quantity, not quality. Unlike the phenomenal Sui Generis who already has nearly 40k words, I'm falling way behind in quantity, so, um . . . bye.

Posted 07:05 AM | Comments (2) | NaNoWriMo