The Nanojunkie Diaries
“What do you think an artist cares about?… Fine wines and black-tie affairs? No! He lives only for that narcotic moment of creative bliss. A moment that may come once a decade or never at all.” — Jimmy, Art School Confidential
I have a confession: I am a junkie. I have been addicted to National Novel Writing Month for the last five years, and my addiction shows no signs of abating.
Granted, it’s a pretty low-key addiction: a mere thirty days in November, cutting an obsessive swath into the holiday season. Those thirty days come in a densely packed rush, like an old friend who invades your home every Thanksgiving, eating up your free time, alienating your friends, irritating your significant other. Then, as soon as he’s settled in on the couch, he’s gone. You’re grateful to see him go — until next year, at least, when you grudgingly ask him back, wondering what’s the matter with you.
In case you haven’t heard of it: National Novel Writing month is a user-funded creative project started in 1999 by Chris Baty that encourages participants to write a 50,000 word novel in one month. (That’s approximately 1,666 words a day, if you’re the kind who obsessively tracks word count.) Collaborative fiction and works-in-progress are disallowed, but screenplays, nonfiction, and other kinds of creative work are encouraged. There is no “prize” for winning–save a little digital certificate and the smug satisfaction of churning out hundreds of pages of terrible writing when the guy next to you had the good sense to quit.
Nanowrimo’s website features “creative procrastination” forums, word count tools, interviews, and other ways to avoid writing. Baty has even written a book on Nanowrimo entitled No Plot? No Problem! in which he champions the scruffy charm of the mostly-improvised novel, urging hopeful authors to banish their “inner editor” and embrace their creativity.
Nanowrimo is not without its critics. Many see the project as a threat to legitimate novelists, fearing that the craft will be torn down by the burgeoning masses of participation culture. Some bristle at the cheek of Nanowrimo participants daring to call themselves writers, or even (gasp!) novelists, feeling that “true” novelists are threatened by such amateur endeavors. (This, to me, is as ludicrous as saying that gay marriage threatens heterosexual marriage.) None of this does much to daunt participation, however; Nanowrimo has grown every year since 1999, from its original participation of 21 members to over 100,000 in 2007, and many Nano authors have gone on to see their Nanowrimo books in print (although, with the new promotion from Creative Space, anyone can do that. God bless the Information Age.)
From one Nanojunkie to another…I hear you, man. But yeah, there are lots worse addictions than creativity. Thanks for the article and here’s to a burgeoning wordcount.
Despite the self-recriminatory analogies (the mutant mutt, etc.), I seem to recall that those first couple novels were a blast to read, just like this confessional essay. I imagine you hunched over your keyboard, filling endless reams of paper with stream-of-brilliance fantasy narratives, a la a Midwestern Jack Kerouac — only more talented, and much longer-lived. Outstanding, Mr. Swensen. More, please.
really great article mister. now get back to writing dammit!!!
I completely forgot about NaNo this year. The irony being that I’ve written more this month than I have during the years that I’ve entered. Good stuff, Dan, and good luck with the rest of the month.
I’m one of around a million aspiring writers out there right now and someone whose list of completed works doesn’t amount o whole lot of beans, but regardless I still feel inclined to comment on Manowrimo because the very idea of it scares me witless. My own writing problems are centred around quality not quantity and I’m concerned that Nanowrimo is a way of encouraging the latter without giving much regard to the former.
I could easily come up with a cursory idea for some two bit fantasy novel and hammer out a draft of it in a month, but have resisted the temptation as I can’t quite see how that would get me where I wanted to be? If I’ve given no idea to the ideas and themes underlying the work what exactly would be the point in sitting down to write it in the first place? I’d be left with a very long draft of nonsense and I’m sure that I’d be far too dispirited to go back and actually rewrite it . Now, I’m not saying that Nanowrimo itself is suggesting you don’t plan out your draft carefully before you write it, but from the people I’ve spoken to, it certainly seems to encourage that attitude in people. It certainly encourages a feeling of a sense of achievement in pure word count; yet what achievement is there in putting words onto a page if none of them are any good?
I can’t see the point in creating drafts which are liable to go in the bin – I’d like to see nanoplotting month, in which people sign up to write precisely No words whatsoever but come out at the end of it with a well conceptualised novel that’s worth writing, that writers can then work on slowly a piece at a time, making sure that there’s quality and detail there as well as the word count. What’s in a word Count anyway? O Henry’s stories are pretty good.
I’m not saying that this is you Dan and that your writing is of zero quality (this piece is very well written, for starters!) I’m certainly not threatened by Nanowrimo or amateur writers. I am an amateur writer after all. I’m just…what’s the word? “bemused” by this whole affair.
Alex,
Some good points. Allow me to respond from my own experiences.
Obviously, Nanowrimo is different things to different people, and as such, it’s certainly not for everyone. It’s a tool, and if you’re not going to get any use out of a tool, obviously there’s no point in you using it.
A couple of things, however. Baty does talk about outlining in his book, even advising people to take a couple of weeks before November and plot everything out if they want to — because once the pace of Nanowrimo picks up, it’s going to be harder to stop and plot halfway through. (I still know writers who do it, though.) But even beyond Nanowrimo, there’s hardly a consensus among writers about whether outlining and plotting ahead of time is “correct.” Lots of writers outline and consider it vital to their work. Others find it antiseptic and detrimental to their creativity. Again, it’s all about finding the method that works for you.
Secondly, a common mistake that a lot of beginning writers make is overvaluing their first draft. Certainly it’s not inconceivable to write a work of genius in only one draft, but it’s very uncommon, and mere mortals like you and I, most likely, simply don’t have the talent for it. The classic scenario in this case is the beginning writer who writes a few paragraphs, stops and edits because they’re just not good enough, writes a few more paragraphs, goes back to rewrite… and ultimately never finishes the work in question.
This was me before Nanowrimo. I was so hung up on wanting to do something of “quality” that I ended up not doing anything at all. Perfectionism is fine when it’s in aid of something, but if it’s actually stopping you from being creative, well, in my opinion it’s the perfectionism that should be binned. Real writing takes editing, redrafting, reworking, and “murdering your darlings.” Something like Nanowrimo is essentially a form of priming the pump; making a daring beginning to set the stage for the real work down the road.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m all in favor of “quality over quantity,” but to be honest, unless you’re actually producing work of some kind, the notion of “quality” doesn’t mean anything by itself. Hastily-written words might be poor in quality, but they’re still better than no words at all.
In your first paragraph, you talk about being “scared witless” by Nanowrimo — that really sums up my feelings on writing before doing Nanowrimo. Busting out a rather trashy first draft in thirty days taught me that I didn’t need to be afraid of words — that I could always make more of them, and that even a questionable beginning is far preferable to no beginning at all.
All this is not to say that I think “Nanowrimo is for you,” Alex, but if you do want to write and your current methods are not working for you, I would encourage you to give it a try next year. Freedom from quality can be a very liberating thing!
This is my take on NaNo as well. Many use it as a tool to simply produce whatever’s on their mind–and have no serious literary aspirations at all. That’s fine! There is a value in that kind of writing; mostly as a kind of creative release for the author.
However, those of us that need a swift kick in the head to jump start our production, NaNo is absolutely brilliant. Not only does it provide a built-in deadline and word-count goal, it creates a friendly atmosphere of competition and camaraderie. Very few other places outside of workshop give you that same satisfaction of producing prose alongside friends. And what does community give you? Well: a safety net when you’re feeling vulnerable about your work; a built-in encouragement mechanism — no one likes to watch others fall behind; a sense of accomplishment when you’ve finished your work.
All this said, I’ve only participated in NaNo once in 2007 — and didn’t break 20k. However, I liked the model so much I tried to run a NaNo clone on Icine for several years (with a longer period of 50 days and a more modest goal of 30k), to varying levels of success.
I know in the music business there are “the true “Artists” and the “stuff that sells”……..and if what comes “out” happens to “sell” Well……This is the Magic as we call it in the world of creative endeavors. “Quality is in the eye of the beholder” and thanks Dan, good article.
Junkie huh? I joined in 2004 and did it every year since, losing only once in 2006. However, this month, I swore not to write this year. But alas, I had a dream the other night and began writing on the 18th and I am now writing madly to catch up and finish by Novemeber 26 as I won’t have any writing days after that.
But, I don’t think I can call myself a junkie–yet. Maybe I am… Still, that was a great article. Thanks for writing and good luck on this year’s nano! And I get what you mean about the forums, it’s really now familiar… same thing every year, but I still go back there. -shrugs-
But what I am hoping will be different for me this year, as it is very easy to crank out creative works, is to have the confidence of actually editing my nano. And I cannot wait until March, so I guess I’ll start editing as soon as I am done with the story.
Thanks a lot, Tiffy! I’m glad you enjoyed the article, and good luck to you as well!
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