Letter 41: October 13, 2008
First, I want to thank the people who wrote to me approvingly about the last letter - the one about the Greek language, or whatever it was about. I was surprised, because I thought it was one of the weaker letters - fairly self indulgent, and not really addressing the subject of writing. I suppose you could rephrase that as "enthusiastic and interesting." Anyway, this supports the notion that you can't really judge your own work.
It's time to remind ourselves about National Novel Writing Month, which is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing (it says here). The goal is to write a 175-page (50,000-word) novel during the month of November.
Valuing enthusiasm and perseverance over painstaking craft (it goes on), NaNoWriMo is a novel-writing program for everyone who has thought fleetingly about writing a novel but has been scared away by the time and effort involved.
Because of the limited writing window, the ONLY thing that matters in NaNoWriMo is output. It's all about quantity, not quality. The kamikaze approach forces you to lower your expectations, take risks, and write on the fly. I can confirm this - I have entered twice, "won" once, and conducted motivational research with the participants three times.
Make no mistake (I'm quoting again, but I take responsibility for what I say): You will be writing a lot of crap. And that's a good thing. By forcing yourself to write so intensely, you are giving yourself permission to make mistakes. To forgo the endless tweaking and editing and just create. To build without tearing down.
As you spend November writing, you can draw comfort from the fact that, all around the world, other National Novel Writing Month participants are going through the same joys and sorrows of producing the Great Frantic Novel.
In 2007, more than 100,000 writers took part. More than 15,000 of them crossed the 50k finish line by the midnight deadline, entering into the annals of NaNoWriMo superstardom forever. They started the month as auto mechanics, out-of-work actors, and middle school English teachers. They walked away novelists.
Something you can try today: I'm not signing up for NaNoWriMo this year. I have to finish the Great Scottish Screenplay. So may I pass the torch to you? Really, you could "walk away a novelist" - many of us have.
David
David Jung McGarva
+1 (818) 707 1871
Write me: david at todayiwrite dot com
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