chocolatequeennk:If you’re in the book world, you know that November is National Novel Writing Month
chocolatequeennk:If you’re in the book world, you know that November is National Novel Writing Month. Sixteen years ago, some crazy people down in the Bay Area decided they should challenge each other to write a novel in a month. The event has obviously grown well beyond that small group of friends–last year, over half a million children and adults around the world participated.But wait. A novel? In 30 days? That’s just insane! There is a small group of nay-sayers who every year trot out the tired argument that you can’t possibly write a decent novel in 30 days.No rough draft counts as a decent novel, no matter how long you take to write it. “First drafts,” to quote Maureen Johnson, “basically exist to suck. They’re wrong, they’re the first pass, they’re my first attempt at the story.” Writing your first draft in 30 days strips you of the illusion that it will be anything but a pile of suck with a few gems tossed in. This disillusionment needs to happen at some point in your writing career.At its heart, NaNoWriMo is about telling people that their story matters. It gives people a voice. It invites them to participate in life, rather than watch it go by. “Do you have a dream?” NaNoWriMo says. “We think you can achieve it.”Twelve years ago, I needed to hear that message. I wanted to write, but I hadn’t worked my way up to actually doing anything about it. During high school I wrote several (dreadful) novella length romances, but over the next five years, I basically quit writing. Then I found fanfiction, and from fanfiction, I found NaNoWriMo.A challenge to write 50,000 words in 30 days? I’m horribly competitive and a little bit crazy, so the idea appealed to me. I signed up and won that first year with a piece of fanfiction I still look at in pride. I attempted and failed the next two years, then won again in 2006 with my very first novel length piece of original fiction.NaNoWriMo taught me that while novel writing is definitely hard work, it was work I wanted to do full time. It taught me that if I applied a little discipline, I could write a novel worth reading.Thanks to NaNoWriMo, I spend most of the spring and summer looking for the perfect story idea to write in November. Five years ago, while I was listening to Pride and Prejudice, I heard Darcy’s voice in my head, telling me his side of the story. I knew right away this would be my NaNo novel; what’s more, I knew it was a book I wanted to publish.In 2011, while publishing His Good Opinion, I wrote Loving Miss Darcy. The next year, while polishing that novel, I wrote Against His Will. This year, I’m going back to the Pride and Prejudice theme with a novel I’m describing as “Pride and Prejudice With Elves.” To say NaNoWriMo changed my life isn’t phrasing it strongly enough. NaNoWriMo showed me what my life could be, and stood on the sidelines cheering while I went after it.Thank you so much, NaNoWriMo—AKA lettersandlight -- source link
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