Why NaNoWriMo is the best invention ever
So here I am, 11 days into NaNo-mania, and already I have a big chunk of novel that is far more developed and coherent than the Fox/Max story that I labored over all through high school and college.
To be fair, about 98% of the Fox/Max novel had been scrapped and started over once I started college. I'd decided to shift the entire focus of the story, making it more Max's tale than Fox's. But still, I just had an amazing catch-up session for my NaNovel (I was pretty far behind in my word count because yesterday was just atrocious, so by the time I got home and turned on my laptop I was so freaking fried that it took me 2 hours to eke out 745 words before I just gave up), and I took a moment to look back over what I've done since 01 November. Believe it or not, an actual novel is taking shape.
Allow me a quick comparison, if you will:
Fox/Max story: 8 years spent actively working on it, almost 4 years spent rereading it and despairing over it. When all of the "usable/salvaged" excerpts are cobbled together, I have a 64 page document consisting of 25,735 words, almost none of which I'll let anyone read. The narrative voice and the style change from one excerpt to the next, and if a casual reader were to give it a go, they'd have NO idea what the hell I'm trying to do or what kind of story I'm trying to tell.
NaNo/Max's ancestor story (and I'm sorry, but I really honestly don't know why I'm so secretive about his name whenever I refer to this story): 11 days spent actively working on it. I currently have 56 pages, 18,338 words, and an actual plot and structure. People will be allowed to read this. And even if I hand copies out now, all rough and unedited and a bit spotty (I'm sort of writing it in a linear structure, but I've taken the liberty to skip around a bit and just write the scenes I think will be fun to write on the days when I'm feeling uninspired), casual readers will not only follow the storyline, but they may even be drawn into it!
If that's not proof right there of why NaNoWriMo is such a miracle event for me, I don't know what I can possibly do to convince you that founder Chris Baty should be canonized.
The abysmal Fox/Max stats notwithstanding, I do still love that story very dearly. It is, after all, my introduction into the world of creative writing, and it has been the project on which I've cut my teeth, found my voice, and discovered myself. I really do want to finish that novel. I think that once I've recovered from NaNo, I'm going to apply NaNo principles to that novel and start again from scratch, redefine what I've been trying to do with that story, and actually get it written. I think one reason why it's such a mess right now is because it's a disjointed collection of writing I did throughout high school and college, and you can kind of tell when each bit was written because my voice and style and vocabulary had evolved dramatically during those formative years.
Thing is, I've been reluctant to scrap a lot of those chapters/scenes/random excerpts because I really do like what I wrote. I had some fine narration, excellent setting and description, fun, sharp dialogue. Every time I tried to restart the story, I would end up cannibalizing bits and pieces from the previous incarnation. But, I must remind myself what Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch had preached: "Murder your darlings."
In any case, I've caught up with my word count, I'm pleased with the progress I'm making, and even though I've started to notice the things that REALLY need to be reworked in the revision process (like, oh, maybe creating a little bit of suspense for the reader by not introducing them to the LIVING person who is responsible for the "deaths by vampire" IN THE SECOND CHAPTER), I'm still very much loving my story and its characters. Even if Adelina/Phoenix is still kind of coming off as unstable. At least I'm more intrigued by her now. I'm not quite so afraid of her as I was a few days ago. And the background on her and Cpt. Volpe that I've been digging up will really seriously flesh out the Fox/Max story when I resurrect it. It's weird how, for a story that I haven't plotted and for which I only did minimal planning, there are a lot of intense quirks and histories that either explain some of the plot holes/anomalies I've faced in the Fox/Max story or absolutely enrich the relationship between Fox and the General. Not bad, seeing how my NaNo story takes place more than 300 years before Fox and Max are even born.
And on that note, I'm long overdue for bed. Tonight I shall guzzle NyQuil like it's a cup of chocolate milk in the hopes that I don't wake up with lungs so packed I feel like I'm drowning. Seriously, I hate this freaking humidifier. But I'm not going to focus on that. Instead, I'm going to focus on the next few scenes that I need to write and figure out how I can improve the structure when I do my first post-NaNo revision. I have a few people at work who are cheering me on to November 30th because they really want to read it when I'm done with it. Since I'm actually writing this with the intent that others read it (and that they read it without me giving them a 45 minute disclaimer/background on the story), I want to make sure that I make the first revision count.
So today's update was quite optimistic and gloaty. Just watch. I've set myself up for the biggest case of writer's block ever. Tomorrow, I will come crying to this journal and gnash my teeth as I tell all of you how much my story sucks and how much I suck as a writer. Yay!
In other news, how many of you are anxious for December to arrive so that you never again have to see the words "NaNo" and "NaNoWriMo" nor see the corresponding user pics? Well, "never again" meaning "until October of 2009." But I'm sure the lot of you are ready for a break. Thank you in advance for bearing with me for the duration of the challenge. : D
To be fair, about 98% of the Fox/Max novel had been scrapped and started over once I started college. I'd decided to shift the entire focus of the story, making it more Max's tale than Fox's. But still, I just had an amazing catch-up session for my NaNovel (I was pretty far behind in my word count because yesterday was just atrocious, so by the time I got home and turned on my laptop I was so freaking fried that it took me 2 hours to eke out 745 words before I just gave up), and I took a moment to look back over what I've done since 01 November. Believe it or not, an actual novel is taking shape.
Allow me a quick comparison, if you will:
Fox/Max story: 8 years spent actively working on it, almost 4 years spent rereading it and despairing over it. When all of the "usable/salvaged" excerpts are cobbled together, I have a 64 page document consisting of 25,735 words, almost none of which I'll let anyone read. The narrative voice and the style change from one excerpt to the next, and if a casual reader were to give it a go, they'd have NO idea what the hell I'm trying to do or what kind of story I'm trying to tell.
NaNo/Max's ancestor story (and I'm sorry, but I really honestly don't know why I'm so secretive about his name whenever I refer to this story): 11 days spent actively working on it. I currently have 56 pages, 18,338 words, and an actual plot and structure. People will be allowed to read this. And even if I hand copies out now, all rough and unedited and a bit spotty (I'm sort of writing it in a linear structure, but I've taken the liberty to skip around a bit and just write the scenes I think will be fun to write on the days when I'm feeling uninspired), casual readers will not only follow the storyline, but they may even be drawn into it!
If that's not proof right there of why NaNoWriMo is such a miracle event for me, I don't know what I can possibly do to convince you that founder Chris Baty should be canonized.
The abysmal Fox/Max stats notwithstanding, I do still love that story very dearly. It is, after all, my introduction into the world of creative writing, and it has been the project on which I've cut my teeth, found my voice, and discovered myself. I really do want to finish that novel. I think that once I've recovered from NaNo, I'm going to apply NaNo principles to that novel and start again from scratch, redefine what I've been trying to do with that story, and actually get it written. I think one reason why it's such a mess right now is because it's a disjointed collection of writing I did throughout high school and college, and you can kind of tell when each bit was written because my voice and style and vocabulary had evolved dramatically during those formative years.
Thing is, I've been reluctant to scrap a lot of those chapters/scenes/random excerpts because I really do like what I wrote. I had some fine narration, excellent setting and description, fun, sharp dialogue. Every time I tried to restart the story, I would end up cannibalizing bits and pieces from the previous incarnation. But, I must remind myself what Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch had preached: "Murder your darlings."
In any case, I've caught up with my word count, I'm pleased with the progress I'm making, and even though I've started to notice the things that REALLY need to be reworked in the revision process (like, oh, maybe creating a little bit of suspense for the reader by not introducing them to the LIVING person who is responsible for the "deaths by vampire" IN THE SECOND CHAPTER), I'm still very much loving my story and its characters. Even if Adelina/Phoenix is still kind of coming off as unstable. At least I'm more intrigued by her now. I'm not quite so afraid of her as I was a few days ago. And the background on her and Cpt. Volpe that I've been digging up will really seriously flesh out the Fox/Max story when I resurrect it. It's weird how, for a story that I haven't plotted and for which I only did minimal planning, there are a lot of intense quirks and histories that either explain some of the plot holes/anomalies I've faced in the Fox/Max story or absolutely enrich the relationship between Fox and the General. Not bad, seeing how my NaNo story takes place more than 300 years before Fox and Max are even born.
And on that note, I'm long overdue for bed. Tonight I shall guzzle NyQuil like it's a cup of chocolate milk in the hopes that I don't wake up with lungs so packed I feel like I'm drowning. Seriously, I hate this freaking humidifier. But I'm not going to focus on that. Instead, I'm going to focus on the next few scenes that I need to write and figure out how I can improve the structure when I do my first post-NaNo revision. I have a few people at work who are cheering me on to November 30th because they really want to read it when I'm done with it. Since I'm actually writing this with the intent that others read it (and that they read it without me giving them a 45 minute disclaimer/background on the story), I want to make sure that I make the first revision count.
So today's update was quite optimistic and gloaty. Just watch. I've set myself up for the biggest case of writer's block ever. Tomorrow, I will come crying to this journal and gnash my teeth as I tell all of you how much my story sucks and how much I suck as a writer. Yay!
In other news, how many of you are anxious for December to arrive so that you never again have to see the words "NaNo" and "NaNoWriMo" nor see the corresponding user pics? Well, "never again" meaning "until October of 2009." But I'm sure the lot of you are ready for a break. Thank you in advance for bearing with me for the duration of the challenge. : D