NaNoWriMo 2008 Wrap-up
Recent read: My not-quite-finished NaNo novel
Feeling: Somewhat accomplished
Well, I made it through another year of NaNo. This time I didn't complete the 50,000 words (I ended up with 42,000), but I still feel accomplished. It's an interesting exercise to plough through a whole lot of words in such a short time.
Admittedly, the end product isn't even what I'd call a first draft, since I've got open spaces with "notes to self" where I need to expand upon something (e.g. I need to research or refer back to an earlier part of the book, the words just didn't flow, or I ventured down a long and winding road that took my focus elsewhere). But it's a start.
I remain conflicted about the NaNo process. On the plus side, it gives me renewed enthusiasm for writing while taking a break from my current projects, and I can see the benefit of "just getting the words down." But, on the negative side, I detest the editing stage. Some parts of it are fun, such as fixing something that just didn't work and discovering the depth of a character as you flesh out their scenes, but on the most part I hate it. So I don't know if starting with 50K of mediocre writing is the way I want to go. Certainly each piece of writing I'm currently submitting was not as a result of something started during NaNo, but who knows? Perhaps I'll actually get around to polishing one of those projects. Until then, I still view them as a success (yes, even the not-quite-finished 42K story from this year). After all, I wrote for a month, every day, and enjoyed doing it.
Feeling: Somewhat accomplished
Well, I made it through another year of NaNo. This time I didn't complete the 50,000 words (I ended up with 42,000), but I still feel accomplished. It's an interesting exercise to plough through a whole lot of words in such a short time.
Admittedly, the end product isn't even what I'd call a first draft, since I've got open spaces with "notes to self" where I need to expand upon something (e.g. I need to research or refer back to an earlier part of the book, the words just didn't flow, or I ventured down a long and winding road that took my focus elsewhere). But it's a start.
I remain conflicted about the NaNo process. On the plus side, it gives me renewed enthusiasm for writing while taking a break from my current projects, and I can see the benefit of "just getting the words down." But, on the negative side, I detest the editing stage. Some parts of it are fun, such as fixing something that just didn't work and discovering the depth of a character as you flesh out their scenes, but on the most part I hate it. So I don't know if starting with 50K of mediocre writing is the way I want to go. Certainly each piece of writing I'm currently submitting was not as a result of something started during NaNo, but who knows? Perhaps I'll actually get around to polishing one of those projects. Until then, I still view them as a success (yes, even the not-quite-finished 42K story from this year). After all, I wrote for a month, every day, and enjoyed doing it.
Comments