"Yeah, I'm gonna write a book one of these days about that, when I have the time..."
That's one of those things a lot of people say often. (And don't do.)
Why not?
Because fiction writing is hard work.
It's exhausting, wrestling with language to make it operate the way you want it to. Editing and proofreading are boring and time-consuming. Arranging margins and tab stops can be extremely frustrating. That's not even counting the plot snags, or characters not developing right, or any of those other things. But all that struggle and hassle can bring incredible, though unfortunately mostly unquantifyable, rewards; as well. For one thing, some of those voices in your head can become acceptable-to-adult-society imaginary friends, and weird experiences can reveal new insights about your characters, or make wonderful scenes.
Which is why NaNoWriMo was created.
Here's the deal: In 1999, a group of twentysomething literature-loving guys in the San Francisco area decided that they would begin a project where they would write a novel in a month. It was crazy, and only six of them succeeded. But they decided to try again the next year. And some more of them succeeded. And they told their friends....and so now National Novel Writing Month is held each November.
The rules are simple: You start writing a novel on November 1st, and you stop on November 30. It must be a new project; not a continuation of an abandoned earlier one; and if you write 50,000 or more words, you win. What's the prize? Well, writing a decent-sized novel's worth of fiction. That's something not many people can say they've done. And if you felt like putting in a lot more extra effort(and had a good tolerance for feedback), you could revise it into possible something worth sharing with other people; maybe even trying to get it published.
Because it might be a good plot, or have good characters, or a good scene here and there, but overall it's gonna be a mess of a manuscript. But it's only the first draft - they're supposed to look like that.
Chris Baty, who came up with the idea and wrote about it in his book No Plot? No Problem!, says that by setting deadlines for yourself allows you to reach your goals during outside-of-work projects. Because there's that journalistic rule: "Get it in by deadline." It can be fixed later. That's what editors are for(wonderful people, editors). It won't be perfect. And that's okay. Just get it written, as well as you can, turn it in by deadline, and call it good enough.
It's ridiculous in scope, of course....but aren't all tremendous journeys? The quests of the Bagginses, Luke, Leia and Han's efforts to defeat the Empire, Tom Haverford's journey to business magnate status, a kid from Brooklyn named Steve Rogers becoming the symbol of a generation. A scrawny, wrongly-built horse called Seabiscuit becoming the the equal of Babe Ruth and Joe Louis in the eyes and hearts of America's public during the Depression. An Olympian living through a plane crash, being set adrift n a rubber raft for eight weeks, and then being a POW for two years until the end of WWII. Two dogs and a cat get lost and travel miles across California to reach their home again.
I'm gonna try it for September, and if it goes well, maybe again in November or some other month. Anyone else up for such a wild challenge?
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