Well I wouldn't say my writers block is over yet, but I'm certainly getting giddy over something else writing related.
Anyone who knows me, knows that I take part every November in a fun little writing extravaganza called NaNoWriMo (or National Novel Writing Month if you're being posh). Its a technically insane, community driven, caffeine fuelled creative challenge designed to get you out of the planning stage and into the writing stage. In fact, it works by smashing the planning stage completely to pieces with an inflatable squeaky mallet. The idea is to write fifty thousand words in a month, quality and coherency be damned, the theory being that by having a deadline in place, and the pressures of common sense and a restrictive plot thrown gaily to the wind, you are free to unleash the full potential of your creativity and just write. To win, you just have to hit 50k, and the shiny certificate and smug self satisfaction are all yours.
It sounds barmy and a total waste of time to most people (95% of whom I can guarantee have never tried it themselves), but in 2011 236,618 people from all over the world participated (the 2012 figures have not been posted yet) so clearly they thought there was something in it. And speaking as somebody who has participated for six years (and won five of them), and written a large bulk of her literary works in these contests, I'd say that there is definitely something in it. If I tally up roughly all my word counts for each of those six years, that's about 380,000 words - that's 380,000 words more than I would have done if I hadn't done the contests. Its a LOT of novelling!
The beauty of Nano is completely stripping away all your worries. How is this character going to evolve? How is the killer going to cover their tracks? Is the ending going to be happy or sad? Who knows?! You're writing this story as it comes to you! You're taking the journey with them! You're not God in this story - you are one of the characters. All those emotions they feel? You're feeling them too! Plans? Who needs them?! Plans come later, after you've had a chance to meet your characters, have them get captured by aliens, meet a talking turtle, get drunk and steal some traffic cones with them!
Anyway, the point of this is that Nano is pretty awesome. Obviously it doesn't work for everyone - I know plenty of authors who can't function without a plan that has been exhaustively checked, rechecked and triple checked just in case any errors in plot have slipped in like fungus. But for people who have an idea but don't know where to begin, who are stuck in their stories and can't get out, or just want to have some pure uninhibited fun in their writing, it can quickly become one of the most helpful and enjoyable experiences in a writer's life.
The only downside to Nano that I personally have, is that its only once a year...or so I though. I'd vaguely heard about Camp NaNoWriMo on the website, but had no idea what it was. Then I looked, and realised that a pot of gold had landed in my lap. Another Nano event? Held twice a year, with flexible word goals, and allowing scripts, memoirs and blogs to be written as well as novels? Sweetness!
This is just the kickstart that my writing needs now! So off Jess and I go! Come April we will be pounding out words like women possessed, and we couldn't be happier! Want to join us? We'll save you space around the campfire! Happy novelling!
OOO
http://www.campnanowrimo.org/campers/mei1105
Friday 8 March 2013
Sunday 3 March 2013
Throwing people off balconies
There comes a time in every writer's lives, where you bang your head against the keyboard and start rolling it around, hoping that maybe some random spark of inspiration will suddenly jump out of your brain and into the keys, like an overenthusiastic six year old trying to be an Olympic diver.
I have these regularly. And the trouble is that they're like playing a musical instrument or driving. Once you've stopped doing it for a few days, getting back into it is like shoving a boulder up a hill.
I hate moments like this. I have a chapter due out tomorrow that I know I'm not going to finish, because my characters (Bakura in particular) are being as bland as a water and cardboard sandwich, and frankly, its a duel and they are always hard to write. Life points, attack and defence points and different metaphors for people smirking are rolling around my head like my brother's Combee on pixi-stixs. My progress board on my bookshelf is staring at me with its blank white gaze, waving the words "Chapter 10 duel" tauntingly in front of my face, along with all my other bloody chapters and stories that aren't finished.
Fics for the Anti-Cliche and Mary-Sue Elimination Society are also waiting to be done, but frankly, despite my enthusiasm earlier this week, I can't get excited about my next big Society fic any longer, purely because there's another unfinished story that I'm collabing with someone, that has been sitting in the way for the past year. I can't write ahead of myself effectively. I have to have a sense of progression when I write - that the last bit is done and I can move on to the next bit, otherwise my flow is ruined. This is also why I can't chunk write. Because like most writers, I'm imperfect. I write, then I change my mind, then I redo things. Its the only way my head keeps everything straight. Doing bits and pieces out of order just confuses me, and I forget what I've changed and what I haven't. I also have another collab that I've been working on for my Oneshot a Month challenge, but that's fallen on the back burner too.
Added to which, I now have a piece of smut that I promised my boyfriend in exchange for some writing help. If I write it in this kind of mood, I'd probably end up throwing all the characters off a balcony, which last I checked, was not conducive to helping them achieve an orgasm.
And that's just the fanfiction. I'm aching to go back to my novel, or last years NaNo, or start one of the two ideas I have floating around in my head as potential Camp NaNoWriMo pieces. But I can't write feeling guilty and knowing there's all this other stuff I've got to finish first. I have to get the other projects done and out of the way before I start on anything big. Otherwise its like starting work on that essay that's due in a month, when you've got an unfinished piece of coursework due in tomorrow.
The pounding headache that I've had all day isn't helping matters either.
So instead of trying to find inspiration in some form, or power through and just accept that my writing will be crap if I'm in this mood but that its better than nothing, I'm instead bitching on my blog in an effort to prevent a layer of dust forming on it.
Is it working?
...
Hell if I know. Guess we'll find out in a day or two if I get this stupid duel up.
I have these regularly. And the trouble is that they're like playing a musical instrument or driving. Once you've stopped doing it for a few days, getting back into it is like shoving a boulder up a hill.
I hate moments like this. I have a chapter due out tomorrow that I know I'm not going to finish, because my characters (Bakura in particular) are being as bland as a water and cardboard sandwich, and frankly, its a duel and they are always hard to write. Life points, attack and defence points and different metaphors for people smirking are rolling around my head like my brother's Combee on pixi-stixs. My progress board on my bookshelf is staring at me with its blank white gaze, waving the words "Chapter 10 duel" tauntingly in front of my face, along with all my other bloody chapters and stories that aren't finished.
Fics for the Anti-Cliche and Mary-Sue Elimination Society are also waiting to be done, but frankly, despite my enthusiasm earlier this week, I can't get excited about my next big Society fic any longer, purely because there's another unfinished story that I'm collabing with someone, that has been sitting in the way for the past year. I can't write ahead of myself effectively. I have to have a sense of progression when I write - that the last bit is done and I can move on to the next bit, otherwise my flow is ruined. This is also why I can't chunk write. Because like most writers, I'm imperfect. I write, then I change my mind, then I redo things. Its the only way my head keeps everything straight. Doing bits and pieces out of order just confuses me, and I forget what I've changed and what I haven't. I also have another collab that I've been working on for my Oneshot a Month challenge, but that's fallen on the back burner too.
Added to which, I now have a piece of smut that I promised my boyfriend in exchange for some writing help. If I write it in this kind of mood, I'd probably end up throwing all the characters off a balcony, which last I checked, was not conducive to helping them achieve an orgasm.
And that's just the fanfiction. I'm aching to go back to my novel, or last years NaNo, or start one of the two ideas I have floating around in my head as potential Camp NaNoWriMo pieces. But I can't write feeling guilty and knowing there's all this other stuff I've got to finish first. I have to get the other projects done and out of the way before I start on anything big. Otherwise its like starting work on that essay that's due in a month, when you've got an unfinished piece of coursework due in tomorrow.
The pounding headache that I've had all day isn't helping matters either.
So instead of trying to find inspiration in some form, or power through and just accept that my writing will be crap if I'm in this mood but that its better than nothing, I'm instead bitching on my blog in an effort to prevent a layer of dust forming on it.
Is it working?
...
Hell if I know. Guess we'll find out in a day or two if I get this stupid duel up.
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