NaNoWriMo -- The Final Update (See You At Camp)

By the time I post this, I will have finished NaNoWriMo's required 50,000 word for the month of November. Then I'm going to go through the entire mess with a red pen and slash at least a third of it.

I don't have as tight a draft as I did for Camp back in July, but I have something less than the mess that is usually a NaNo novel. Mostly, my story is boring. And one character became magically more complex about 20,000 words in, so I'm going to spend a little time fleshing out his story.

But it's ugly, even for a first draft. I know this is part of the game -- write a really "shitty first draft," and to my credit, the last two have at least been editable. But gah, sometimes I think the only thing I get from NaNo is an improvement in my typing skills.

NaNoWriMo: Week Four

As of writing this, I have about 10,000 words to go before I "win" NaNo. There needs to be a better word -- finish maybe? Congratulations. You are the proud owner of a shitty first draft. Wining makes it sound like there's a prize (okay, you get a banner for your blog or Facebook). Winning NaNo means more work ahead if you want to edit your NaNo into something resembling a novel.

NaNoWriMo Midpoint Check-In

November is halfway over. How are you doing on your novel?

1. I hate calling what I'm writing at the moment a novel. I have no illusions of publishing it. NaNoWriMo writing is, by nature, horrible, and first drafts, by nature, are horrible, but isn't there some sort of awfulness barometer. Like, "okay, this tripe is beyond editable. You know it. You can stop pretending now." At what point is a first draft too awful?
2. I've picked up the nasty habit of watching SATC prior to writing. Last year it was My So-Called Life. So now, at least one of my characters is heavily channeling Samantha, but at least she's not a Rayanne Graff clone.
3. I can't stress enough the importance of outlining. I had a very detailed outline for camp, and I finished in just over two weeks. Granted, camp's story was more like a dozen loosely connected short stories rather than a cohesive piece of fiction, but it was the most I'd ever written in a short period of time, so it can be done. (I need to revisit my camp novel because it was also my best "NaNo" by a long shot.
4. I'm printing chapters as I go along, which makes me want to edit -- a NaNo no-no. I like having a printed backup because my aging browser/OS is no longer supported by Google Docs, and I don't really have the time to do an update before the first of the year. I can still store it in Docs, but I can't edit it.

NaNoWriMo: Week Two

So I'm right on schedule, though my "novel" has taken a turn for the ridiculous and some minor characters have staged a mutiny. In other words, it's officially NaNo season.

I've decided I can't be a serious writer. I mean, in the "oh teh drams" sense. But then I think of someone like David Foster Wallace, who wrote BIG SERIOUS BOOKS with LITERARY MERIT, and he was still funny. Given that's it's November, I'll stick with the funny and leave the literary merit to someone else.

I hate the words "literary fiction." There's no way around its pretentiousness and elitism. But it's what I read, and what I aspire to write. I've been dancing around it, calling my own writing "realistic, contemporary fiction" or something else non-judgmental that implies I don't write about vampires, or aliens, or murder. (Unless those vampires sat around at Dennys discussing their feelings, I'm pretty sure I'd be incapable of writing about them.) If that makes me an elitist, it's a label I'll have to own.

Neil Gaiman's NaNoWriMo pep talk

"Writing is like building a wall. It’s a continual search for the word that will fit in the text, in your mind, on the page. Plot and character and metaphor and style, all these become secondary to the words. The wall-builder erects her wall one rock at a time until she reaches the far end of the field. If she doesn’t build it it won’t be there. So she looks down at her pile of rocks, picks the one that looks like it will best suit her purpose, and puts it in."

Go read it now.

NaNo: Week One Update

Technically, it's a couple days early for a weekly update, but one of the side effect of NaNo is that I don't have time to update my (nearly) abandoned blog with things other than NaNoWriMo updates. I'm procrastinating as I'm writing this. I'm a little behind in the day's total, but I hope to be caught up at the time of posting.

One thing NaNo has taught me over the years is to write smoothly and efficiently, if a little tersely. (Granted, I'm not the most verbose person to start with.) This is acceptable for early drafts. Unless you are, in fact, Raymond Carver, or a fan of 80s minimalism, you can always go back and "pretty up" your writing later. I like to call this a "skeleton" draft -- just the barest necessities of your story. Since I tend to write character rather than plot-driven fiction, this means my characters are a little less than dynamic. Actually, they're a bunch of cliched asshats right now. I printed out the first chapter and cringed as I reread it.

NaNo: Day One

Like last year, and both camps, I'll try to limit these posts once a week. (Reading about NaNo is like listening to someone retell their dreams -- it's only interesting to the dreamer/writer.) I'm on schedule (about 1700 words per day), but I'm cheating this year and wrote some ahead of time. I have part of a skeleton draft that I'm fleshing out, a new MC, and a slightly new direction which makes it, if not a new story, a least a fresh take on a failed one. My issue is one I continue to have: where does the line between YA and not-YA end? I have a young(ish) MC with a voice that's decidedly young (after scrapping my more "writerly" one), and a few scenes too adult for a young crowd. I think what I'm doing is writing the stories I wish existed when I was a teen.

NaNo Countdown

I've changed my outline a handful of times since my last check-in. Something is propelling me to start the story with a different scene (probably all the bad writing that came before it), so I'm doing something I never do and going with my instincts. With the caveat that it's NaNo and it's supposed to suck.

And I don't really believe that. The point of NaNoWriMo is to turn off the inner editor that says "this sucks" and just write. Inevitably, there will be a lot of "suck." The first time I did NaNoWriMo was the first time I'd written anything more than a couple thousand words. I "won," but in the end what I had wasn't a novel but 50,000 words, none of it salvageable. This reality talking, not a lack self-esteem. I finished, but I didn't really write anything. What I did get out of it was a sense of what my shortcomings are, the necessity of planning, and discipline. Those aren't glamorous things, but vital.

NaNoWriMo Writing Resources

NaNo season is a scant three days away. Here are a few helpful links to get you started:

There are plenty of free online word processors out there, but Google Drive and Zoho Docs  are two of my favs. Personally, I use a combination of Google Docs and Microsoft Word on an old laptop that I use primarily for writing. That way, I can write anywhere, and download later when I'm home. Plus I have an extra saved copy. (I also periodically print my work because I like a "hard" copy I can mark all over.)

Writer Unboxed and Ploughshares are two excellent writing blogs for when you need extra help and inspiration, or just an impetus to keep going.

NaNoWriMo's Writing 101 forum is just what it says: a nuts and bolts writing forum where no question is too basic or embarrassing. All of their forums are a fun diversion from NaNo's kamikaze style, but this one is particularly helpful, as are NaNo'ers as a whole.

Write or Die forces you to write by punishing you when you don't. According to their website, it's "a web application that encourages writing by punishing the tendency to avoid writing. Start typing in the box. As long as you keep typing, you’re fine, but once you stop typing, you have a grace period of a certain number of seconds and then there are consequences." To be honest, I've never used this, but I know a lot of people who swear by it. And swear at it.

NaNoWriMo is less than two weeks away

And for once I'm not in panic mode. I am, however, changing pretty much everything including the POV. I started with one character who, no matter what I did. read a little too closely to the "manic pixie" trope, so I started writing from his POV, figuring I'd use none of it, but I'd see where I wanted to take this person. What happened was he ended up being more interesting and dynamic than my original MC, who've I'll all but vanished into the cornfield. So I'm writing an entirely new story, I guess.

A bigger issue, and it's one that crops up with nearly everything I write these days, is that my story falls in that gray area of YA, but not YA. When I was a teenager, there really wasn't a market for YA lit that wasn't part of a series (hi Sweet Valley, which I wouldn't be caught dead reading after seventh grade), so I really wouldn't have appreciated books written for teens that weren't so teen.

Speaking of smart writing for teens, I just finished David Levithan's Two Boys Kissing, and it was wonderful (if a bit treacly in spots). I'll try to have a longer review sometime this week.

Pre-Write

Writing 50,000 words in a month isn't hard, but it's guaranteed that in those 50,000 words, more than half of them will be unusable. I'm trying something different this year and doing a NaNo pre-write totally about 20,000 then writing the full 50,000 during November. It's kind of like an extended outline, since formal outlines are really easy to break.

I started writing last month when I realized this story should be more than 50,000 words long, but I didn't want to cram all of them into the month of November and essentially "nano it up." I'm cheating in more ways that one: technically, this is the same story I wrote for last year's NaNo, but with a few tweaks. Starting early, even if I keep none of it, allows me to flesh out characters that are a little one-dimensional right now, and plan longer scenes which I'd rather write during the editing process. Basically, I'm doing a skeleton draft that's a lot of dialogue and not much else. I've found this the easiest way to start a piece of writing, especially since I usually start with characters.

NaNoWriMo -- You Know The Drill

I've you've been reading this site for a while, you know that I'm a big fan of NaNoWriMo. So with November just around the corner, it's time to get planning. Or pantsing, if that's your thing.

After participating in NaNo for nearly a decade now, the biggest thing I've learned is that blasting out 50,000 words in a month is a terrible way for me to write. If that seems hypocritical with all the praise I heap on NaNo, well, it kind of is. But what that really means is I have to tailor NaNo to my own needs, aka, cheat. I've gotten a head start on my 2013 project, and I plan on using the month of Novemeber mainly for editing. I need an edit-mo desperately. Also, I'm a big proponent of outlining. Outlining was the bane of my college existence, and it took me nearly two decades to realize I'm a shit writer without one.

Another thing I've found helpful for knocking out a lot of writing quickly is to write a skeleton draft, which is basically a lot of dialogue and a few transitions. This can be "prettied up" later. NaNo is great for skeleton drafts, or you can write a pre-NaNo skeleton and use November to write a fuller draft. The key is not to worry so much that you're writing crap.

Let Camp Begin

Camp NaNoWriMo, July version, is in full swing. So how are you doing?

I came into July the most planned-out I've ever been for any writing project, and so far it's helping. Granted, it's only day two, but having a more polished outline, something I've resisted going back as far as college, has helped keep me on track without all the NaNo word vomit in the name of word count.

Happy Campers

I'm willing to concede that writing can't be taught, that there is a sort of "itness," an undefinable literary umami. However, I fully believe editing can be taught. Editing is writing's less glamorous sister. No one likes editing (well, I guess maybe editors), but it's a necessary step in turning good writing into great writing. (Or dreck into something that passes for good writing.) A couple books I've found helpful: Susan Bell's The Artful Edit, and Renni Browne and Dave King's Self-Editing for Fiction Writers. They're both pretty 101, but in all the formal writing classes I've taken, editing was rarely, if ever mentioned.

Another book on the craft of writing I'm enjoying right now is Robert Olen Butler's From Where You Dream.  I actually don't recommend this to beginning writers -- he's pretty unorthodox but dogmatic in his own unique approach to writing. It's not a book as much as a series of lectures, so it's pretty loose. I like that I do a lot of these things already, and I like that his focus is on literary as opposed to genre fiction.

Camp NaNo Sign Up

Today is the day to sign up for Camp NaNoWriMo,, and if you have a NaNoWriMo user name, you don't have to make a separate profile.

Basically the premise is the same -- write a novel in a month -- but with the option of a "cabin" of virtual novelists for support.

Much needed validation (aka my final, final NaNo update)

Yesterday NaNoWriMo started awarding "purple bars" to those who completely the task of writing 50,000 words this month. If you haven't validated your word count, you can do so now.

Not all word counters are equal, though: I lost about 50 words between Google Drive's and NaNo's internal word counter, so you may want to have a little bit of a "cushion" if you want your novel validated.

Yesterday I had a chance to read through what I'd written during the month. It's not awful, I am proud to say. It's not the best thing I've ever written, but it's clearly not the worst. (That would be NaNoWriMo '07 which is, hands down, the worst thing I've ever written in my life. Imagine a mash-up of Spinal Tap, The Muppets, grunge, and every terrible 90s stereotype one could exploit and it still wouldn't come close to the horror I penned that year.)

The truth? Writing is supposed to be hard. It's something I've said here many times, but this was pretty easy. I almost feel guilty that I breezed through the thing in just under three weeks. I didn't give up much except the hour or so I would normally spend reading my newsreader, or Tumblr, or Television Without Pity's boards. The other years I successfully completed NaNo, I was part of a local blogging ring where most of the women my age were mothers, and I always attributed my success to my lack of adult responsibility. I know that's not entirely true, but at the time, it felt like that what my excuse should have been: had I to take care of another person, I could have never found the time to busy myself with such a silly and superfluous "hobby." Those words were never said verbatim, but they were more than implied.

A lot of parent do NaNo and many of them "win." Sure there's going to be some sacrificing, but that's true with anyone. I think the real reason I managed to finish ahead of time is because I write something every day. I didn't have years of actual writing under my belt when I did those first two NaNos. I may have been more fearless, but less experienced.

So I finished NaNoWriMo. Now What?

Congratulations, you are the proud owner of your very own novel. No matter how illogical, incoherent, disjointed, or just plain awful it is.

I know I promised no more, but this is my final update, I swear. I finished the 50,000 word goal sometime yesterday, with exactly one week to spare. This is the earliest I've ever finished a NaNo novel, and probably the most words I've written in a such a short period. Now here's the bad news: 50,000 words does not a novel make. I'm sticking to my "polishable turd" theory, even if only a few kernels of corn in the turd are actually polishable. I don't entirely hate my story, though large chunks of it are insufferably boring. Boring is a step up from truly awful, and I can work with this, even if it means tons of retooling before I even bring it to a workshop as a rough draft. It's a draft of a draft, and I'm completely okay with that.

Because there is no alternative

Just a few items I wanted to link to today:

While NaNo is coming to a close, there are still a lot of writers behind or just in need of a motivational kick in the pants. A lot of people are using a fun little app called Write or Die. In a nutshell, you have to keep typing or it "punishes" you.

And since I've gotten quite a few hits for it this holiday season, here's my list of Salvation Army Alternatives.

NaNo Progress Report, Week Three

Day Thirteen: I'm still ahead, and my prose predictably sucks. This is as to be expected. Writing is fucking hard work.

I'm cheating. I'm actually going back and editing a few things with the stipulation that I add more words than I remove.

Day Fourteen: Well, it took almost two weeks before my writing actually started to sound like my writing. I'm letting it be quirky and non-linear. I just wish I would have done it this way from day one instead of trying to write THE BOOK in big, capital letters. On the plus side, this is the least sucky NaNo I've ever written.

Days Fifteen and Sixteen: I'm averaging 3000+ words a day. I'm determined to finish this thing before November 30, even if it means sacrificing some of my sanity. After about 2500 words I start to sound a little silly.

Day Seventeen: Polishable turd: that is my goal. I wrote about 4000 words today. I'm determined to have this thing finished by Thanksgiving. I've done NaNoWriMo since 2006, excluding last year, and I've "won" in only '06 and '07. The first one was a joke, literally. It was so awful I had to turn it into a bad parody of a Nick Hornby novel. 2007's was a mess. Calling it awful would be generous. This isn't hipster self-loathing, they were really that bad. But hey, good writing practice, right? This one doesn't suck so hard, though I see so much I want to change RIGHT NOW and I'm trying my hardest not to edit as I go along.

Day Eighteen: Just over 10,000 words to go. I'm trying to have this thing done in a few days, so this will probably be my last NaNo update. Okay, I'll admit it now, I am one of those annoying people who can bang out a 2000-word screed (or 2000 words of a novel) in an afternoon. It does get easier. That doesn't mean the writing is any better, but my typing skills have vastly improved.

Or maybe not. Here's a selection of this week's nanoisms:

"He could feel the nile rising in his throat." (Impressive, but bile makes more sense.)

"... stereotypical acts of male modeling." (That should read male bonding, but I think I would have had more fun with this story had I made it about male models.)

"His mother's cooking made him gaga." (Gag would work too.)

"... picking up the peaches..." (I meant to finish with "picking up the pieces of his life," which I delete as soon as I wrote the word "peaches," not because it was an utterly silly typo, but because the phrase "picking up the pieces of his life," is so hackneyed I couldn't live with myself.)

Repost: It's Okay To Hate Your Own Writing

(Originally published on 4/20/11. I think this is appropriate for NaNoWriMo, which is often wrought with self-doubt.)

Recently, I saw this posted to my Tumblr dashboard:

It would be pretty fucked up if you didn’t enjoy your own writing. Then it would be like, why would anyone else like it?

I don't always enjoy reading my own writing. Scratch that: I rarely enjoy reading my own writing. If that's fucked up, so be it. I take solace in this quote from Nick Hornby:

Like a lot of writers, I really can't stand my own writing, in the same way that don't really like my own cooking. And, just as when I go out to eat, I tend not to order my signature dish -- an overcooked and overspiced meat-stewy thing containing something inappropriate, like tinned peaches, and a side of undercooked and flavorless vegetables -- I really don't want to read anything that I could have come up with on my own computer.

If apathy bordering on revulsion is a common response to one's own writing, I guess I'm in good company then. I don't trust someone who loves everything she's ever written, be it Tumblr word vomit or an award-winning article. There's something, I don't know, dishonest about it. Maybe it's because I'm always questioning what I've written, the thought that someone actually enjoys her own writing makes me uncomfortable. Every little mistake that I don't catch until I've hit publish, every misplaced comma, every awkward transition -- I think they must be glaringly obvious to even the most casual reader.

And yet, I think this is okay, healthy even. In an age where we're all supposed to show unwavering self-confidence, doubt keeps you pushing harder. Doubt makes you want to be better. Though I wonder how much self-doubt plays into giving yourself "permission" to write. I'm forced to recall Gloria Azaldua's piece in The Bridge Called My Back, where she is probably the only writer I've come across to openly question who society gives permission to write:

Who gave us permission to perform the act of writing? Why does writing seem so unnatural for me? I'll do anything to postpone it -- empty the trash, answer the telephone. The voice recurs in me: who am I, a poor chicanita from the sticks, to think I could write. [...] How hard is it for us to think we can choose to become writers, much less feel and believe we can.

I think this is important to remember, for all those writers who think, nay, know they have the right to call themselves writers. There's quite a bit of privilege there.

Added: 11/13/12

I wanted to tie this into NaNoWriMo because, well, everything this month is tied to NaNo. If attempting to write a novel in short period of time achieves anything, it's the practice and discipline that putting your butt in a chair and just writing grants you. Now I realized that not everyone has the freedom that having ample downtime allows, and for some people, NaNo is a real impossibility. I wrote close to 3000 words this afternoon, not counting my non-NaNo writing, and it gets easier, I swear.