NaNoWriMo Q&A

In the weeks leading up to NaNoWriMo, lots of writing blogs are offering some motivation and thoughts. This post from Write Anything is a neat expression of why NaNo isn't a waste of time and why even the bad novels that come out of it are worth every minute. She also gives 7 questions at the end to get you thinking about what you're writing and how you're writing it.

Anyway, here are my answers that I left in a comment. Kind of gave me some perspective, especially on the value of this crazy writing adventure. What are yours?

1. Do you have an idea for your NaNoWriMo project? Yep! Taking a short story I wrote earlier this year for a class and completely re-writing it to novel length. The feedback class consensus was that it was a good story that needed to be a novel, and this is the motivation I need to work on it!

2. What instrument will you be writing your novel on? My kickin' new Macbook. It's our first NaNo together. Write or Die and an old fashioned spiral notebook when I get blocked.

3. Where will you likely be writing most of your story? Probably at home, in my room. I want to try to do some lunch break writing at work/Panera/coffee shops though, and my novel will start at a friend's house while I cat-sit for her this weekend. Kind of looking forward to the quiet place to get a jump start on my novel!

4. When will you likely write your story? At night. Laaaate at night. By the time I get home from work, that's the only writing window I have most of the week.

5. What is your daily word count goal? 2,000-ish is good, but I try not to be too rigid. Last year, I won NaNoWriMo even with spurts of non-productive writing weeks. Word count varies day to day.

6. Have you participated in past NaNoWriMo’s? How many years have you won? Yep... this is my third year. first year was a 15K fail, but last year I won! Totally intend to win this year too. :)

7. What do you think about NaNoWriMo in general? A waste of time? Or beneficial? Unless you're already an productive, disciplined writer with an excellent work ethic that can turn out beautiful work without an arbitrary deadline hanging over your head... it's super beneficial. And if you are all that, it probably is beneficial to help you stop taking yourself so seriously. ;)

I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one that is a creature of procrastinating and perfectionist habits when it comes to writing. If no one is expecting me to turn it in, I tend to put it off. I like that at least for one month of the year, writing a novel draft feels as important as any other work, since so many others are writing along with me. And with such a big goal in such a small time, I have permission to write badly, with the hope that something worth keeping will emerge.

So yeah. I love it! Winning last year got me excited about writing fiction again. Sure, it was a pretty bad novel, but it gave me some good characters to work with (one of them with a major role in this year's story), and it inspired me to take a Creative Writing class and start writing again. I recommend anyone who has ever entertained the idea of writing a novel give it a try -- whether you think you can write or not! The results may surprise you!