Nano Musings. in The Napkin.

Half the time when I explain nanowrimo to someone, the response is, “So you’re learning to write badly?” That simultaneously misses the point, and IS the point.

I’ve “won” nanowrimo four times, and each time it’s an exercise in overcoming my perfectionism. There’s the initial inspiration, drive, the plot, the characters. And then suddenly there’s a gapping plot hole. You want to get from A to B and you have absolutely no idea how. You start overthinking and wonder how to make it consistent.

Generally when this happens for me, I realize I’m too caught up in the minute details, that the time scaling has slowed down DRAMATICALLY. How often when we’re reading (or watching something) is there a sudden pan-away, and then two lines in the next sequence indicating the passage of time and what happened during that time? This feels like cheating, because we want to show, not tell. Always show, rather than tell, a sequence, if it’s important. But what if it’s not important? If you want to show EVERYTHING, you can always go back later and edit.

My first two novels, I relied on cheese as a plot device. No, seriously. “I need my character to do something with this other character. I KNOW. I’LL USE CHEESE.”

Sometimes we’re afraid to take chances while writing out of fear that it won’t be believable. Or consistent. Or worse: it’ll be bad. Have you SEEN some of the shit that manages to make millions of dollars? If nobody’s going to read it, what does it matter?

My third novel was almost a rewrite of my first two, except WITH A PLOT. And that’s okay. My fourth was extremely cathartic and off-the-cuff. I actually had a lot of outlining notes that I referred back to a lot for inspiration, if I wasn’t sure which direction to take. I created scenes, I left scenes out, but if I wasn’t sure, I’d refer to my notes and remember the arching plotline.

And so what if the entire novel “is bad”? Why is it so bad to do something badly, so long as you enjoy it? Yet, it’s never THAT bad, we’re just too self-critical to see that we need to practice to get better. You have to be level one before you can be level two.

Hrm. Almost October. I better start outlining and doing character sketches. My BIGGAYNOVEL will be the greatest thing I’ve ever written. TO RIDICULOUS, AND BEYOND!