Laura Miller of Salon encourages you not to do NaNoWriMo

[coneycat]

Because writing a lot of crap does not strike her as a productive way to spend November.Dude. If "you're not good at it already so don't bother!" was valid reasoning, I would not have spent the last two years trying to learn to play guitar. Or the last twenty, off and on, trying to learn how to ride a horse. (And one might argue that it would be

Comments

[syriinx]

So...she gets upset about NaNoWriMo, actually dreads it, and...why? What the hell does she care what other people do with their time? It's not like participating in NaNoWriMo suddenly makes a person ready to query agents, but I'm sorry, an agent's job is to sort through the shit and find what they consider to be gems. An agent's complaint's does not proove NaNo is a bad thing. Agent's complain. It's like part of their job description. Try again, Laura.

This happened last year, I think. Some author had a fit over how NaNoWriMo bothered him because writing is a craft and blah blah blah. People without MFAs are trying to be professional authors and it's blah blah wrong, etc. It always amazes me.

[coneycat]

It's funny you should mention Microsoft, because I'll wager that word processing and email have done a lot more to swamp agents than NaNo ever did!

[quietann]

In the opinion of one of my old professors, a leading social and personality psychologist, word processing and email made academic publication a nightmare. He was editor of JPSP (the #1 journal in the field) and once word processing was widely available, for the first time he had to hire an assistant, just because of the sheer volume of (usually cr*ppy) manuscripts submitted.

[coneycat]

Your post this morning was just an elegant response to this whole school of thought. Why get all bothered about something that can't possibly hurt you? What's the harm??

[bogwitch64]

See, people who can't take joy in something just for the sake of doing it are sad, IMO. It limits them.

[coneycat]

YES.What is the harm in fun for its own sake???

[library_of_sex]

Soooo...no one should try anything new ever unless they magically know somehow that they will excel in their endeavor? What great advice!

[library_of_sex]

Also, what's crap to one person could be glorious treasure to someone else, and besides, people measure success in different ways. I'm assuming for most doing NaNoWriMo, the fact that they'll get themselves to write at least 50000 words is a huge achievement in and of itself. Just cuz it's not being published internationally or gonna be on best-seller lists doesn't mean it's worthless crap.

[coneycat]

The whole point of NaNo is to get over the fear of putting words on the paper. Sure, some people will realize it's harder than it looks ("I'd like to write a novel if I could find the time" is just fooling yourself, if you've never written anything else) but where's the harm? You make a bet with yourself and you either win or you don't. Simple!

[coneycat]

That's exactly what we should be teaching kids in the schools, don't you think??

[green_knight]

the only "one" who gets a vote about how I spend my free time is me

Exactly. You're not harming anyone, so what business is it of anyone else?

[coneycat]

Yes! As someone else pointed out in this thread, where's the harm? In fact, unless you live with a NaNo writer, where is the potential for aggravation at all?