I Do Not Get NaNoWriMo
Oct. 3rd, 2009 03:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
inverarityI'm feeling curmudgeonly. (Probably why I've been having a harder time lately biting my tongue. I need a little more zen so I can go back to posting nothing that's not related to writing.)
Okay, so I'm going to be curmudgeonly about writing.
It's that time of the year again... every freaking LJ community and message board on the Internet is about to be filled with hysterical ranting about sleep deprivation and word counts and runaway plot bunnies and idiotic squeeing over NaNoWriMo.
Someone explain to me what the appeal is of churning out 50K words of crap in a month?
Sorry if I am harshing your squee, for those of you who are participating in NaNoWriMo, but (1) 50K words isn't all that much, and (2) "quantity not quality" is a phrase that should never be used with regard to writing. I've seen people proudly talking about how they're inflating their word counts with tricks reminiscent of a high school freshman trying to pad two paragraphs about the American Revolution into a 10-page essay the night before it's due.
Umm, not that I ever did that or anything...
Okay, so I'm going to be curmudgeonly about writing.
It's that time of the year again... every freaking LJ community and message board on the Internet is about to be filled with hysterical ranting about sleep deprivation and word counts and runaway plot bunnies and idiotic squeeing over NaNoWriMo.
Someone explain to me what the appeal is of churning out 50K words of crap in a month?
Sorry if I am harshing your squee, for those of you who are participating in NaNoWriMo, but (1) 50K words isn't all that much, and (2) "quantity not quality" is a phrase that should never be used with regard to writing. I've seen people proudly talking about how they're inflating their word counts with tricks reminiscent of a high school freshman trying to pad two paragraphs about the American Revolution into a 10-page essay the night before it's due.
Umm, not that I ever did that or anything...
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no subject
Date: 2009-10-22 09:06 pm (UTC)NaNoWriMo is not for you. NaNoWriMo is for those people who keep saying "One day, I'd like to write a novel." but never get around to it. It's for the people who can't write more than a page because their Inner Editor tells them that it's crap and no matter what they do, it can't be improved. Of course, some people do it for the bragging rights.
NaNoWriMo is the reason I'm finally able to write without the crippling insecurity. It's also great fun.
I see why you don't understand it. You've already written 2 novels with a third on the way. But I've never managed more than 12 pages of fiction before NaNoWriMo.
And one last thing: By the end of the month, you haven't written 50000 words of crap. Maybe 45000, but you find little gems in there. You surprise yourself.