Does NaNoWriMo foster bad writing habits?

[sushimustwrite]

There's a discussion in the NaNoWriMo forums about a non-writer friend of a Wrimo who believes that NaNoWriMo fosters bad writing habits. Does it, though? The non-Wrimo friend believes that NaNo encourages writers to pad and worry about deadlines and word count instead of writing on one's own and page count. Let's take a look

Comments

[moonglade_swan]

It's always the non-Wrimos who feel that NaNoWriMo fosters bad writing habits. I'd say that not practicing writing fosters bad habits more than NaNo does.

[wanderhomeagain]

If you're padding with NaNo, then you didn't have a novel length story to begin with, in my opinion. I rarely finish my NaNo story because I don't get that far.

The biggest bad habit that NaNo has instilled in me, I think, is that I'm so busy rushing through the story that I get burned out on it. It's just the adrenaline of the challenge, I think, but I personally need to draft slower than that. Or draft that many words in a day, but not be CRAZY CONCERNED about making up the words if I miss a day or two.

[alfvaen]

I think the biggest problem with NaNoWriMo is that it's not enough. I have eight or ten first drafts sitting around now, and have done very little with any of them. It's like if "National Cookie Baking Month" consisted of mixing as many bowls of batter as you could. (Yes, I know about NaNoEdMo, and maybe one of these years I'll try that instead...but it seems to me to be a much harder skill to learn.)

[kaesa]

I guess I'm a little confused about the fear of developing "bad writing habits" like padding, because they're so irrelevant to the finished product. I don't know that I consider myself a NaNo writer -- I've written twice during NaNo but never finished -- but I do tend to write the best in an environment where a bunch of other people are writing and wordcounts matter. In addition to the motivation it gives me, the deadline often gets me to consider plotlines and possibilities that I would never have thought of, and gives me that extra incentive to say "oh, why not? Let's see where this rabbit hole leads. If it's awful I can return to the planned outline." And I almost never return to the planned outline.

Anyway, that all might occasionally lead to padding. The thing is, though, you get to edit. NaNo and similar projects are not for producing publishable work, they're for getting first drafts finished, and I'm finding (working not to a deadline or with a wordcount goal) that what I need to do, often, is to get the words on the

[shipwreck_light]

I do not think I ever would have figured out this drafting business were it not for NaNoWriMo teaching me how to quiet my inner editor.

That said, most everything I ever wrote for NaNo has turned out to be a hot mess when I tried to edit it. This, I accept. In at least one case, it was totally my fault (crummy outline).

So, thank you, NaNo. Thank you for giving me the joie de vivre to actually apply my butt to a chair and write. I'm sorry some people don't like you, and ergo fun.