rachel on 3/11/2010 at 18:34
Sure, but if you spend too much time rereading and editing instead of building the story, you won't make it. It's too big of a tentation.
You should just reread the last couple paragraph to see where you're at, and go forward from there. Don't turn back until December 1st :)
Sulphur on 3/11/2010 at 20:23
Quality over quantity any time. 2K words a day? Sure, if you're spending a whole 8 hours per. But your muse will clock out at some point, and you'll be left sipping bitter, bitter coffee and spend the better part of the day being acidic to the dog and your mum.
Xorak on 3/11/2010 at 21:16
I'm a believer that in the first phase, the quantity is more important than the quality. The quality can always be worked on, but first you actually need the work there in front of you, and you need the hours spent working to achieve any sort of skill and to bring forth the ideas and, dare I say it, your 'writer's voice'.
Although I like the idea of NaNoWriMo, I believe that for the first-time writer 2000 words a day is insurmountable. The only people who will finish are those who are inured to doing so anyways, which, to me, defeats the purpose of the thing, and actually only raises the 'mystique' of the writer.
Enchantermon on 3/11/2010 at 21:37
Quote Posted by Sulphur
Quality over quantity any time.
If you're doing this for a living, sure, but the point of this is not to write something that can be published, but just to write something. Anything.
Sulphur on 3/11/2010 at 22:11
I don't see why, because there's metric tons of tripe that's already out there from fully motivated full-time writers, no less.
To get people to only write a certain number of words within a deadline just increases the garbage output with a low probability of something good actually coming of it.
Stitch on 3/11/2010 at 22:30
While I easily agree that quality is the thing, I do think that NaNoWriMo can be a valuable tool to get people actually writing. Perhaps focusing on hours spent overall would yield superior results, but word count works as a tangible and easily understandable goal, and there's a certain appeal to having a finished draft at the end of it all--it might not be perfect, but at least it has a beginning, a middle, and an end.
People who write regularly know that a finished first draft is only the first and debatably easiest step of the writing process, but NaNoWriMo isn't exactly pitched at them.
Queue on 3/11/2010 at 23:03
...so after a few good edits it can then be added to the ever-growing pile of tripe on the market. *rib rib*
Honestly, my only issue with contests like these is that it gets the idea into some of those -- who probably shouldn't be writing in the first place -- to believe they are now "real writers" because they now have a shitty novel; and will now never bother taking the time to learn to write well. I've been writing novels for years and know better than to add any of them to the slush pile.
After twenty-some-years of writing, I'm still learning my craft instead of worrying about publishing all the time.
Stitch on 3/11/2010 at 23:40
How does a NaNoWriMo self-fashioned "good" writer affect you or your creative output in the least?
JediKorenchkin on 3/11/2010 at 23:43
Quote Posted by Queue
Honestly, my only issue with contests like these is that it gets the idea into some of those -- who probably shouldn't be writing in the first place -- to believe they are now "real writers" because they now have a shitty novel; and will now never bother taking the time to learn to write well.
I'm inclined to agree, but I think the larger problem is that people
just keep buying those shitty Stephanie Meyer's books.
Stitch on 4/11/2010 at 02:44
So? What makes her shitty popular literature worth any less than a cabinet full of brilliant rejected novels that will never see the light of day?
More appropriately: why envision a false rivalry between the two?
