I'll try anything . . .

Once.

After the NaNoWriMo posts yesterday, I decided that anything that seems to motivate writers, that encourages them to get the story out was something that deserved a second look.

I signed up. But I didn't download any mean software that would eat my words unless I maintained a certain tempo in my writing. That just gave me the willies.

I sat down to write today, not really sure where I was going. I haven't done all my pre-writing as usual. I didn't even have character names till this morning. And the notion of just keeping my fingers going seems counter-productive to me. So I did NaNo my way.

I set a timer for 20 minutes. For that length of time, I would only go forward. I had a little over 600 words when I heard the first ding. I reset the timer and as a reward to myself, I went back to tweak what I'd done. At the end of that 20 minutes, I had nearly 800 words. Words I was proud of.

I continued like that for some time (about 4 1/2 hours or so) and before I knew it, I had over 3000 words/ 14 pages, which is pretty close to my all time high output. On a story I knew very little about before I started writing it this morning.

This could work.

At one point I took a break and walked on the treadmill for 30 minutes, ideas for the story churning with each step. I'm excited about this new process of 20 minutes forward/20 back. I've done it before but usually only once a day. Not sure it's sustainable, but I'm willing to give it a go.

So for those of you who are doing NaNo, please "buddy" me. I'm signed up as EmilyBryan. I'll be happy to cheer your progress and share tips with each other.

Will I hit 50K by November 30th? Probably not. And will I feel bad about it? No. I'll be further along on something than if I didn't give it a try. Should you feel bad if you don't try it? Absolutely not. I'm not even doing it right. It would make me crazy not to go back and fix things, so I realize I'm not proceeding in the spirit of Nano which is only plunging forward. I think it's important to be aware of my own limitations and going a little nuts over not being able to fix things in a timely manner is one of them. But I'll try Nano for now.

Just don't expect me to sign up for that "Write or Die" option.

NaNoWriMo . . . Not so much.

I've checked out the NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) website. Lots of authors I totally respect are signed up and typing away furiously. Writers are challenged to complete a 50K novel in one month. It seems like a great way to make a writer push forward. And yet . . .

I'm not a fan.

There seems to be more stick than carrot here. Depending on which sort of motivation you sign up for, your novel can start "unwriting" itself if you fail to meet your quota of words. Doesn't trip my trigger. Even the more gentle version seems a bit naggy to me.

If you visit National Novel Writers Month's website, they freely admit you will be writing a large amount of junk. And I quote:

"Make no mistake: You will be writing a lot of crap. And that's a good thing."

Hmmmm. . . Why is that a good thing?

I'm in favor of getting out of my own way and letting words flow. I regularly set a timer and promise myself that for the next 20 minutes I'll only go forward. But when the timer dings, I go back and clean up my mess. 50,000 words of mess would totally overwhelm me.

I'm all for re-writing. I do it all the time. In small manageable increments.

But Donald Maas, author of WRITING THE BREAK-OUT NOVEL and noted literary agent, says it's better to get things right the first time. My goal when I type THE END is to have a manuscript that, in a pinch, I could send right in. (However, neurotic wretch that I am, I usually try to arrange matters so that I have a few weeks to tweak things before I let my editor have a crack at it.)

Now, I'm not saying I can't pants a novel. I wrote both my novella in A CHRISTMAS BALL and my upcoming STROKE OF GENIUS without bothering to put together a synopsis first. The freedom of flying without a net is wonderfully exciting.

But there's a certain amount of pre-writing I need to do to prime the pump. I need to have a clear picture of my characters and their goals. I know a number of the major plot points. The rough shape of the story is in my head, even if the details are fuzzy. I need to know when and where the story takes place and how the events going on in the world at that time impact my characters' lives. As a historical author, I'm constantly researching as I write.

If I devoted a whole month to quantity of output instead of trying to make the quality of the writing the best I can, I would be wasting my time. I belong to the tortoise school of authorship. Slow and steady wins the race. Regular, sustainable writing is more productive for me than manic outbursts. Even when I was working 40 hours a week at a day job, I had a daily and weekly page count goal (it was 25 a week then which will get you 400 pages in 4 months. 3 completed manuscripts a year. Not bad for a turtle!)

That said, there are as many ways to write a book as there are authors out there doing it. If NaNoWriMo works for you, go for it. I'm happy for you.

It would drive me crazy.

And if you are a tortoise like me, don't let anyone make you feel bad about it. She also writes who does a little everyday.

If you think I'm wrong, please feel free to point out whatever I've missed. For those of you slugging it out in the trenches, do you have a daily page count? Weekly? Do you have a finish date for your current WIP?

PS. Just to show there's no hard feelings, here's a link for a contest especially for NaNo Writers: First Sentence Contest.