taking on a writing challenge
If you’re familiar with my Operation Twenty12 project, one of the things that I wanted to work on over the course of the year was writing more often. Though I believe that I have slowly started to put out more content, I have still battled with the frustration of writing. Not necessarily writer’s block, per se, but just overcoming the reticence to write about whatever comes to my mind. What can, or could, I do to get over this hump? Well, I spotted an article a few days ago about an annual writing challenge and my interest was immediately piqued.
The National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo, is a movement, of sorts, that encourages aspiring writers to draft a novel of at least 50,000 words in 30 days. The creation of NaNoWriMo is interesting, and you can read all about it here. I did a quick Google search and there appears to be a lot of writers gearing up for NaNoWriMo. Of course, the challenge has its critics. Laura Miller, a writer for Salon.com, wrote a rather critical piece about National Novel Writing Month a couple of years ago. Carolyn Kellogg wrote a strident counterpoint piece in the LA Times. To each their own, I say. If NaNoWriMo can challenge or encourage someone to get an idea out of his/her head…what’s the harm in that?
I have signed up for NaNoWriMo, and I have about six days to think about a subject, plot, and character(s) for my novel. If you’ve read some of my posts on this blog, you know that I am fully capable of cranking out 1,000 or more words in a single post. Sustaining that flow of thoughts and words 50 times over seems quite daunting, though. With that said, I think the most challenging aspect of NaNoWriMo is that I have not written any fiction since I was kid. I used to love writing illustrated, short stories. Since then, however, all of my writing has been short– or long-form, non-fiction essays. Add to that, practically everything that I read is non-fiction. Just how in the world am I going to develop and write a fiction novel? I guess we’ll see. I see this as a challenge to try out something completely different. Something way outside of my comfort zone. I am anxious, but also excited.
I believe that a couple of friends, who are far more talented writers than I, will be participating in NaNoWriMo. What about you? If you do plan to take on the challenge, let me know in the comment section. I’d like to connect the people that I know are participating. I’d like to use a Springpad folder as a place where we can share ideas, suggestions, tips, and encouragement.
Given that this is a 30-day challenge, You can count on me coming back on December 1st to let you know what happened. Wish me luck!
You can do it Matter! I was smiling the entire time I was reading this post. I can’t wait to read what pours out of this challenge. Many of us who enjoy reading your blog have no doubt that something fabulous this way comes!
Thank you, Carla! Your support means so much to me.
Matthew -
Glad you are doing it! I’ve come really close to doing it the last 3 years, but always found a reason that I didn’t “have” the time. But last year I vowed I’d do it this year, so I’ve enrolled. I think it is a great idea for me, since I often wait to do things until I have the time to try to get really good at them, and this is so fast that no one can expect themselves to be perfect (well, we can dream, can’t we?).
The NaNoWriMo community in D.C. looks like it runs a lot of events, and I’m planning to go to some of them, so maybe I’ll run into you.
Best of luck!
Hi Victoria. I am really glad to hear that you’re trying out NaNoWriMo. I hope that we can meet up at some of the events, and discuss our experiences along the way!
Best of luck!
You might want to look at the recent MacHeist special for a copy of Scrivener (www.macheist.com). It was just extended a few more days.
Thank you Robert. I was able to catch the bundle, including Scribener, on MacHeist. I appreciate the tip.
Here is a suggestion: rather than approaching this as trying to write a piece of fiction, try writing a piece of fictional non-fiction. Does that make sense? One grammatical nitpick:
“I believe that a couple of friends, who are far more talented writers than me.…” Me should be I in this sentence.
Thanks Rich. That particular use of “I” vs “me” always trips me up. Carla said that she spotted it, too.
I like your suggestion for how to approach writing the novel. I thought about doing some form of historical fiction, but I don’t have enough time to do research. With that said, I am giving some thought to turning a know event or story and putting a fictional spin on it.
Matthew -
I went to the kick-off meeting of the D.C. area NaNoWriMo group this afternoon — about 50 people came, with lots of creative energy. There are plans for writeins several days a week, for another kick-off party next weekend, for a mid-way party, and an ending party. I really enjoyed meeting some of the people there, and it was a very supportive atmosphere. Many of the people were returning veterans, and they made it all seem quite doable, especially with the community support (lots of them have used the write-ins to get over plot humps, and the organizers bring plot and character prompts to the meetings).
People are writing all sorts of things — historical, fantasy, science fiction, chick-lit, hard-boiled, modern fiction, or completely unsure yet, etc.
Victoria
Hi. I saw a calendar of events. I was out of town this weekend, so I was not able to attend the kick-off event. Hopefully I will be able to make some of the other events. I will be sure to reach out to see what write-ins and meet-ups you might attend so we can see each other. It appears that a number of the events are at 5 pm, so that might pose a challenge for me, but I will work it out.
Matthew — The D.C. group was also encouraging anyone to create their own write-ins and post them on the D.C. group event list, so you could create things that fit your schedule and you might get some takers to join you. I’m thinking that I will go to a number of the writeins, most likely the ones in Dupont Circle or Chinatown, and maybe at Baked and Wired (although the cupcakes are a deadly temptation there!)
I already have a plot, but if you don’t yet, one of the best hints that I heard yesterday was to think of your five favorite movies and mash up the plots of them.