Monday, December 8, 2014

1,667 Words per Day (NaNoWriMo, and all that)

On December 1st, every year, producing 1667 words in one day seems like such an achievable goal. Make that 2000, just to round it out. 2000 words in a day?! Easy! I could do that! Just give me a very large cup of very strong tea, a couple of fantastic soundtracks, and I'll turn out 2000 words in a couple of hours! And then I'll take a deep breath and do it again! 2000? I could give you 5!

This is because I participate in NaNoWriMo (here's a link: http://nanowrimo.org/ ). It's kind of awesome. Aspiring writers of all ages and ilks (whatever an ilk is) congregate online every November with the one aim of producing a novel in 50,000 words (which works out to 1667 words a day, if one wants an average minimum). Or a novel. Or 50,000 words. Whichever comes first. The website has all kinds of tools and helps and inspiration and even local connections and meetings, and the mere community is exciting: We're no longer alone in this writing thing! Others are doing the exact same thing all over the world!

I have participated for 7 years, and many of my books have seen their beginnings in November; and their continuation. Somehow, I missed the idea that you're supposed to actually finish by November 30th; but other people don't make that their goal either, so I'm in good company. It is an excellent incentive to sit down and get some work done, proceed further into the body of the story than you ever expect, and cast aside the usual restraints of trying to write sentences that make sense or get the phrasing or scene no less than perfect. Because, after all, reaching for perfection is what editing is for! And they say that G.K. Chesterton almost never edited his writing! (Ok, he might not be the best example; his works often ramble and could use a little tightening up.)

As I have said previously, I am an unfortunately prolific writer. My short stories are never less than 10,000 words and many of my novels are only reaching their beginning after 100,000. So as someone who can produce so many words, NaNo with its quick goals and deadlines-for-fun ought to be easy for me, right?

Alas, no.

My goal is always perfection. Chesterton never edited, so why should I have to? And, more than that! Every sentence counts; every word has a relevance for what a character is, how a scene will play out, how the plot will unfold. Every line effects how I think about the whole story; so every line has to be perfect, or the story won't come out right! I obsess; I agonize. Then I get distracted and go off and do something else, and consider it a good day to get 300 words done.

For this reason, although I have long stories, it takes me a long time to get them that way. I still don't think that I could or want to finish a whole novel in one month or in around 50,000 words; I prefer room to stretch and grow. But NaNoWriMo does push me further along than I usually get in even two months. That's why I love it! However, my bad habits from the rest of the year always mess up the beginning.

It's like this:
November 1st - Gah! didn't write anything. Oh, well. There's always tomorrow!
November 2nd - Um... Oops. Well, 500 words isn't too bad. I'll just write 4000 words tomorrow.
November 3rd - Should be at 5000 words+. But, I can catch up later. I'm too tired to write more than 100 words today.
And so on...
November 14th - I was really too busy to write today! But 10,000 words total isn't that bad...
And thus to the 4th week. Then I panic, and suddenly write up to 5000 words in one day.

The graph of my progress usually ends up looking like a skateboard ramp; a gentle slope (far below par) in the early parts of November, abruptly arching up to meet the 50,000 word goal at the end. It's pathetic, really.

One of the strengths of NaNoWriMo (which is short for National Novel Writing Month) is that it teaches good writing habits: If you write every day for a whole month, then you will have formed writing every day as a habit. If you write around 2000 words, all the better. Real, published authors write books in 2000 words per day!

And then there's me! I write so much at the end that 2000 words starts to look easy; but it isn't a habit, so I quickly lose the knack. Along comes December with all of its crazy Christmas preparation and it's hard to find the time to sit down again. Oh, well. At least I can keep up the habit of writing a little every day! Eventually, I will finish!

Actually, I have discovered that stories are forgiving things: They are like bread more than like soufflés. You have to be delicate with a soufflé; the proportions must be just right, the timing just so, or it won't work. But with bread dough, you can add a little of this, a lot of that, forget it when rising, pop it in the next morning, and it'll still come out delicious. Plots are more like that: I may have an idea at the beginning of what I want my story to be; but it writing, I forget something, or include something else, or get lost in a sidetrack that I didn't expect but turns out to be terribly important. And part of the way through, the story has become something unrecognizable. But then, when I get toward the end, I suddenly see that, somehow, the plot and feel and themes of the story have turned out very much how I wanted them.

And, in an update to a previous post, I finished a book!!! I actually did it! It took forever, but I got to "The End," plus a postscript! "The Princess and the Stable Boy" is wrapped up and complete, in four unedited volumes! Hurray!
It's quite possible that I'm afraid to finish a story: I don't want to let it go, or face the upheaval of a final climactic struggle, or say goodbye to the characters, or something. Perhaps that's why I have such a hard time finishing. But, I learned that I can! Be ready world, here comes "The History of Rowena and Mortimer!" (after a few beta readers have attacked it, and come up with a better name)






No comments:

Post a Comment