tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3379518858474986857.post2267780820262849711..comments2024-01-27T00:42:48.097-08:00Comments on Renaissance Oaf: Hey, NaNoMo, Are You Sure You Know What You're Doing?Sean Cravenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13763869499494698057noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3379518858474986857.post-27477538115829073892012-11-13T19:02:52.755-08:002012-11-13T19:02:52.755-08:00Sorry to have left this for so long...
I think Na...Sorry to have left this for so long...<br /><br />I think NaNoMo is a swell thing. I also think it has a valid place in many people's creative lives.<br /><br />Robyn, I honestly tried not to aim any acrimony at people who were trying to actually craft books and who used NaNoMo as fuel. More power to you.<br /><br />But it's having a disproportionate effect on fiction in general, as I stated. A lot of readers and a lot of sellers want to deal in bargain words by the pound. Put that together with the general decline in language skills, and fiction -- or at least the kind of fiction I prefer -- seems to be fading, growing tattered, he said bleakly, and gazed into the drab mustard of the sunset.Sean Cravenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13763869499494698057noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3379518858474986857.post-44383146008680466752012-10-25T21:33:16.123-07:002012-10-25T21:33:16.123-07:00Hi Sean,
I've done nanowrimo twice, and I...Hi Sean, <br /><br />I've done nanowrimo twice, and I've already signed up for this year as well. I wouldn't say either novel I finished was brilliant -- the first one needed an additional 15,000 words (after the almost 62K I wrote in Nov 2009), and the second... well, I haven't read it yet. Maybe in December. <br /><br />For me, Nanowrimo provides a starting point when I stop researching and planning, and a target to say "the end" and calm down and go back to my disciplined everyday habits. I could impose those start and end dates on myself, but honestly I wouldn't. That's where I'm lazy, with calling things done. <br /><br />Nanowrimo provides me with something to edit 11 months a year, and really, that's the fun part for me. New words? Not so much. <br /><br />RobynRobynhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18343435208403097543noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3379518858474986857.post-67151972250815665592012-10-24T19:06:09.011-07:002012-10-24T19:06:09.011-07:00I am so with you on this.
When I see folks pipe u...I am so with you on this.<br /><br />When I see folks pipe up about 'doing NaNo' with their smiling, joyous faces, I die a little bit.<br /><br />For folks serious about writing, every month is a writing month and every day is a writing day. Shorts, novelettes, flash fiction, novels... whatever. We do it nearly every day.<br /><br />And, I do understand what's behind NaNo. They're trying to turn daily writing into a habit. And yet, most people trying this aren't used to the pace. They finish the month exhausted, and think 'Now I can take a few weeks off'. Ugh. They just shot their own foot.<br /><br />And none of that even touches on the quality issue. I'm not one of those who thinks a quickly written novel is invariably bad. But I do think haste can make waste, especially when you don't have a solid grounding to begin with. It's really easy to hammer out 1500 words that do absolutely nothing, and a lot of these folks do exactly that, day after day.<br /><br />But, my grousing is irrelevant. Really the only people they're hurting are themselves. If they want smiles and encouragement, I'll do that. Because, ultimately, I am not their final judge. The public is. They can put it up for sale and eke along with a sale every two months, or they can try to shop it around, receiving rejection after rejection. It may take years, but maybe, just maybe, they'll start figuring out that a flash in the literary pan every November does not a writer make.<br /><br />But I won't hold my breath.EFKelleyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01107366346233818007noreply@blogger.com