...National Novel Writing Month doesn't work for everyone.
Gearing up for NaNo this year I ran across a number of blog posts from both published and unpublished writers who had their opinions on NaNo. Maggie Stiefvater has a blog post on why NaNo doesn't work for her here. And Laura Miller of Salon has an opinion piece up on Salon. And I think they're both full of sanctimonious horse hockey.
Stiefvater very clearly states that NaNo doesn't work for her writing style, fair enough, but she then goes on to say it "encourages crappy writing and superficial novel-ing." And Miller has fixated on the NaNo website's own proclamation that you'll be writing some "crap" in order to meet the goal. My first reaction to that was, ouch. But then I can see their points. I imagine some people come to NaNo expecting to have a publishable manuscript at the end of the month. And I can picture, sometime about December 1st, editors and publishers becoming inundated with poorly planned and written novels. It's going to happen I know that. But not all of us who participate in NaNo are those people. Posts like these lump all NaNo participants into a very generalized category and come off as sanctimonious and elitist. If you're a published author who has never participated in NaNo, congratulations on getting published, but please don't make assumptions about everyone else because a particular process didn't work for you. Please don't tell me I'm waisting my time and should go read some books and support already published authors. I don't really believe they intended to insult NaNo-ites, but it's how it came off to me. The high and mighty published author looking down her nose at those of us who aspire to be published. And it apparently came off that way to others, judging by the comments left on the blogs and popping up on my twitter feeds.
I came to NaNo falling somewhere between what Stiefvater calls rebuttals 1 and 2. I needed to know I could get to the end and I needed a deadline. I'm a horrible procrastinator and up until last year's NaNo, I'd never finished anything more than a short story that I didn't do anything with. Every idea I'd had for a novel I'd shelved, I really began to doubt if I was capable of finishing a novel. I also felt like I had all the time in the world to do something. NaNo gave me 30 days to come up with a minimum of 50,000 words. I took that as a challenge to myself to come up with a workable rough draft in those 30 days. I never expected to have a publishable novel. I've spent the last year editing the novel I completed and it's still not quite finished. I'm nearly at a point I'd like to start having it read so I can see what I still need to do to it though.
I disagree with Stiefvater that 30 days is a "patently ridiculous deadline." She doesn't feel she can write a novel to her standards in 30 days and that's fine. I know I can't write a publishable novel in 30 days. But I'm sure there's someone out there who can. I also disagree with her that the NaNo timeline turns writing into an unenjoyable chore. It doesn't feel like writing a term paper to me. I enjoyed every bit of the process, it was exciting to have an outline for my novel set up, to be able to follow it, and to see everything fall into place. She believes NaNo ties you to a word count goal and forces you to do away with "pretty prose." Did I pay attention to word count? Yes. Did I feel like I was a slave to it? No. I skipped days. I wrote a lot on others. I've seen people freaking out over the word count. Break 50,000 down over 30 days and you've got only about 1667 words a day to get to the minimum. That's about two pages, which really isn't all that much. If two pages a day is too much or too forced and you're freaking than maybe NaNo isn't what you need to help you. And there's nothing wrong with that.
Miller at one point says that she doesn't write novels and then in the next paragraph complains that NaNo is geared towards writers. Is she a sports fan? Can we expect anti-sports event articles about how much of a time waster they are and that those attending could better spend their time reading a nice book? She also complains about NaNo geared events in bookstores as "yet another depressing sign that the cultural spaces once dedicated to the selfless art of reading are being taken over by the narcissistic commerce of writing." That doesn't come off as snotty and elitist at all. So her basic argument, as it feels to me, is: I don't like to sit around and write fiction, how dare some wanna be writer invade my precious (and open to the public) bookstore to do something that I don't want to do. Or as "softdog" said in the comments section of her article: "Shorter Laura Miller: 'I'm not going to your party and I'm telling everyone it's stupid.'" I'm sure every hobby and form of entertainment you can name, will have someone who doesn't enjoy it who will complain it's a waste of time, money, etc. Have you ever heard of the phrase, to each his own? It applies to NaNo.
These are just two examples of the anti NaNo articles, posts and blogs I've seen the last few weeks. I read them and try to stay impartial, but it never happens. Every article I've read has some nice points, but I get the overwhelming feeling that the author believes they're somehow better than me because they are published, or have a column. I feel like they're looking down on people like me, like a Queen looks down on the peasants. How dare we aspire to be "like them." Honestly, I hope I'm never like them. I hope I stay open minded about new ideas that come along and encourage people to be creative. There are a lot of things out there that I'm not in to. I've never belittled people who do get enjoyment out of those things. Well, OK, except for Twilight fans.
Because something isn't right for you and you consider yourself some sort of authority on the matter, doesn't give you a license to knock it for the rest of us, or more appropriately to belittle us and make assumptions about us. You can't/won't/just plain don't want to do it and I get that. That's your right. But some of us do want to do it. Some of us will spend post November editing what we've created in hopes of having it published and sharing it with others.
But I will agree with Stiefvater on one point. Anyone who can write a novel in 19 days and have it published with no revisions is an alien.
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