Tuesday
Nov162010
The Page Is All We Get
Tuesday, November 16, 2010 at 11:38AM
Yesterday was the half-way point for National Novel Writing Month (or NaNoWriMo), the blazingly insane annual novel-writing blitz that challenges participants to write 50,000 words in the month of November. I started participating in 2002, and have joined in every other year since (excluding 2006, when I was still reeling from the work of planning a wedding and getting married). I've won the challenge every year that I've joined in, which means I've got over 150,000 words written toward at least three different novels.
As it stands this year, I'm about 7,000 words "behind," after a fun wedding weekend out of town and no writing at all. This does not worry me. The best part of NaNoWriMo is getting behind, feeling lost, and writing anyway.
One of my favorite NaNoWriMo procrastination tools is the official Forums, where users encourage each other, rant, exult, and cheer when they've gotten the green bar -- when their word counter has filled up to 50,000. I especially love wallowing in the wilds of human creativity in the Reference Desk section. This is where bring your logistical questions that would take too many NaNo hours to research. Instead, fellow NaNo-ers share their knowledge or best guesses. I'm continually amazed by the loose-cannon creativity in these forums, shown by questions like:
"Car charger/cigarette lighter in 1980s A-Team van?"
"What does a cow's liver smell like?"
"What is the male equivalent of pillow fighting in the middle of the night???"
"Colors of alien skies humans could breathe"
I LOVE that there are human beings writing novels that need the answer to these questions! And that other people enjoy brainstorming the answers! The breadth and depth of human creativity inspires me endlessly.
One of my other favorite parts about NaNoWriMo is the pep talks from published authors that they e-mail out every week. Last week, Aimee Bender sent out a pep talk that included this bit:
"You may or may not have an outline, but it doesn't matter—what we hold in our heads before we write is RARELY in sync with what shows up on the page, and if I were standing and saying this in front of you with a megaphone, I would say this next part especially loud and clear: The Page is All We Get. What shows up on the page? Well, that is your writing. The full-blown perfectly-whole concept you may have in your head? Is just thought."
The Page is All We Get.
I wrote this immediately on a scrap of paper and posted it right in front of my eyes.
In previous NaNos, I've plunged straight ahead with a novel idea created just for that year's NaNoWriMo. This year, I'm writing new content toward a novel that I've been cultivating in my mind and somewhat on paper for the last year and a half. So I know all about that Epic Outline in Your Head. It just doesn't matter. What comes out, does.
This is about more than just writing. What we write, what we live, is All We Get. Those plans and ideas and dreams and abstract concepts. Just thoughts.
So even when I'm 7,000 words "behind," I know that I'm way ahead of where I was on October 30th, because I've written 18,000 words that would never have existed otherwise. This is my real writing life.
As it stands this year, I'm about 7,000 words "behind," after a fun wedding weekend out of town and no writing at all. This does not worry me. The best part of NaNoWriMo is getting behind, feeling lost, and writing anyway.
One of my favorite NaNoWriMo procrastination tools is the official Forums, where users encourage each other, rant, exult, and cheer when they've gotten the green bar -- when their word counter has filled up to 50,000. I especially love wallowing in the wilds of human creativity in the Reference Desk section. This is where bring your logistical questions that would take too many NaNo hours to research. Instead, fellow NaNo-ers share their knowledge or best guesses. I'm continually amazed by the loose-cannon creativity in these forums, shown by questions like:
"Car charger/cigarette lighter in 1980s A-Team van?"
"What does a cow's liver smell like?"
"What is the male equivalent of pillow fighting in the middle of the night???"
"Colors of alien skies humans could breathe"
I LOVE that there are human beings writing novels that need the answer to these questions! And that other people enjoy brainstorming the answers! The breadth and depth of human creativity inspires me endlessly.
One of my other favorite parts about NaNoWriMo is the pep talks from published authors that they e-mail out every week. Last week, Aimee Bender sent out a pep talk that included this bit:
"You may or may not have an outline, but it doesn't matter—what we hold in our heads before we write is RARELY in sync with what shows up on the page, and if I were standing and saying this in front of you with a megaphone, I would say this next part especially loud and clear: The Page is All We Get. What shows up on the page? Well, that is your writing. The full-blown perfectly-whole concept you may have in your head? Is just thought."
The Page is All We Get.
I wrote this immediately on a scrap of paper and posted it right in front of my eyes.
In previous NaNos, I've plunged straight ahead with a novel idea created just for that year's NaNoWriMo. This year, I'm writing new content toward a novel that I've been cultivating in my mind and somewhat on paper for the last year and a half. So I know all about that Epic Outline in Your Head. It just doesn't matter. What comes out, does.
This is about more than just writing. What we write, what we live, is All We Get. Those plans and ideas and dreams and abstract concepts. Just thoughts.
So even when I'm 7,000 words "behind," I know that I'm way ahead of where I was on October 30th, because I've written 18,000 words that would never have existed otherwise. This is my real writing life.
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