It is the first of November, and so today, I must write.**
Here are the things I know.
I know that I am not
alone.
All around the world, hundreds of writers are sitting down
at computers (or with notepads or typewriters if they’re old school), fingers
flying over the keys as they try to churn out a novel during the month of
November. I know that there are 234,819 writers registered on the NaNoWriMo site, and that there are probably thousands more, like me, who haven’t
registered but are throwing themselves in anyway.
I know, too, that there are other writers. My mother is
doing NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month) alongside my NaNoWriMo, although
the internet lists months from October to May as its official date, and I know
there are other people taking part in myriad similar projects. It is the month
of NaNo, and I am not alone because of this, because there are a million and
one others sitting at their desk right now doing the same thing as me.
I know I work best
when I am swallowed by my story.
In the summer after first year, I held my own private
NaNoWriMo. It took place on a canal boat and lasted, in total, 10 days. True,
it wasn’t the greatest work of literature ever penned, and true, too, I haven’t
matched that record at any time since, but I still know it happened. And from
that, and similar experiences, I’ve learnt that I’m most productive when I can
be completely immersed. My optimum mode of writing is to pour everything out
onto the page, then edit it after the event, turning it from the broad shape of
a story into something tenable. This November, for a change, I actually
have the chance to do that. I don't want to throw it away.
I know I am writing a
middle grade novel.
(At least, I think I do…)
I tend to write for YA – not on principle, but because that
is the space where my stories feel most at home. But I also teach on creative
writing courses for kids as young as eight, and I hate having no stories in the
pipeline that might suit them. This one has been brewing subtly in the back of
my mind for a while, the story of a boy who stumbles into one of the oldest
stories we have, and I want to give it free reign. And the joy of NaNoWriMo, of
course, is that it’s all about the word count, not having a polished piece at
the end. I don’t know what’s coming next really, beyond a faint scattering of
characters, and I don’t want to. I want to get lost in this story as I tell it,
and find out as I go what might happen next. So I think I know I’m writing middle grade right now, but you can never
be sure. This, too, could change.
I know that I might
be lacking in the sanity department.
I am, as you might have gathered, not using NaNoWriMo to
finish the novel I started on the course. This might make sense, but my personal experience of
NaNoWriMo has been that there is, almost always, a point around day 10 when you
get bored. When the plot doesn’t seem to flow as well as it had before, and
when the next big thing you know about is a long way off. When you, cackling to
yourself, throw a dragon or dragon-equivalent into the middle of a scene (“they’d
been talking for two pages. I was bored. So now they’re being chased by a
mutant-bear” – anonymous source, November 2011). Readers, the Book of Doom*** doesn’t require added dragons. I’ve already got enough drama to raise the
Titanic, people it with warring nations, and then sink it all over again. Adding more just seems excessive.
However, this means that I am now trying to write two novels
at once. The Book of Doom, and this year’s NaNo, which is similarly lacking a
title. This may not work. I may well get so lost I end up writing the same book
twice. It is very possible that I have completely lost the plot.
Finally, and this is
the really important part, I know it
will be good for me.
I was so swallowed up by the Book of Doom during the course that,
at moments, I hated it completely. Now that the course is over, writing
something else seems like a good way to purge that frustration and come out
with another possible book. And, if I manage to balance both, and end up with
two finished-ish novels by Advent, I’ll have learnt how to actually achieve
things again, no matter how good my NaNo is.
But, if I fail, I’ll learn things
too. If I abandon my NaNo to focus on Doom again, I’ll know that it really is
where my heart is right now, and that, for all my frustration with writing it,
I still love that story the most. If I let Doom linger by the roadside, I’ll
still leave with another story under my belt, and hopefully with enough of a
sense of victory to let my fingers stutter out the last 30,000 words of Doom
before Christmas. And if I drop out completely and achieve precisely no
finished projects? Then I’ll learn that I need to work harder, and push myself
harder, in order to get to where I want to be.
And maybe find a better way to disconnect the internet…
What about you, folks? Are you doing NaNoWriMo in any of its
forms? And, if so, what are you working on? Do you have any tips or horror stories to share? Answers on
a postcard, or in our inbox. Either way...
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* You're rolling your eyes right now. 'Why is she talking about NaNo,' you think, 'when I know full well she has better things to post? Things that include an interview with my favourite YA writer Sarah Rees Brennan?!'
Well, never fear, lone reader. I am posting this today because it is the first day of NaNo for another half hour, and I believe in starting as I mean to go on. Tomorrow, I will go on by posting our interview with the fantastic Sarah, and writing more of my dual stories. And so on. Until my fingers fall off and my well of interesting topics dries up...
** Am I riffing on the opening of Maggie Stiefvater's The Scorpio Races here? Why yes, yes I am. Do I regret it? Regrettably, no.
***The Book of Doom, I should, add, is a rather
tongue-in-cheek title that tells you all you need to know about my experiences
trying to write it. The real title is still undecided…
Go Cinders, Go! You can do it!!!!!
ReplyDeletebrave girl... GO FOR IT!
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