I've been working on my second novel for almost a year now, and have two hundred pages to show for it. My first attempt took almost twice as long and didn't make it half this far.
Those two hundred pages are solid enough for an early draft, but by no means suitable for publication. The sentences need sharpening, the side characters deserve greater dimension, and some scenes should be tighter. I've miles to go before I feel it's done.
And yet as I write this, scribblers across the country are scrambling to push out novels before the clock strikes twelve on December 1st, racing to complete magnum opuses which they began just over a week ago.
These writers are taking part in National Novel Writing Month, which goes by the unattractive and far-more-difficult-to-type acronym NaNoWriMo. The official website says that participants ("Wrimos") shoot for "quantity, not quality," when they pledge to upload a novel of 50,000 or more words (175 pages and up) for authentication by a team of robotic word counters.
To what end? For a certificate of completion! And the satisfaction of having actually written a novel, no matter how stomach-turning its prose, conceits, and plot.
Don't think I'm being all snotty, but how could these Wrimo plebes, undecorated with MFAs, working under such extreme time restrictions, actually expect to produce works of literary art -- no, participants are told up front to expect that they'll be "writing a lot of crap." And this is where I get all riled up. NaNoWr -- forget it, National Novel Writing Month doesn't celebrate the practice of writing a novel so much as it takes a dump on it, encouraging writers to keep their standards low.
Ok, sure. Ostensibly the practice could inspire amateur writers to have a deeper respect for the effort required to write even the pulpiest, least refined literature, but who, with a bit of imagination, can't figure out that creating an engaging fictional world out of words takes some time? No, it strikes me as more akin to the museumgoer who, upon seeing a work of Abstract Expressionism, says "My kid could paint this," and then goes home to prove it.
The undertaking shows a lack of respect for the many types of effort involved to produce a novel worth reading -- the imagination, insight, finesse of language, knowledge of form, and vision an author needs to cultivate in him or herself. I've been at it for over three years and I'm still struggling to capture the lightning in a bottle that seems required for this alchemy to take place!
And I may well need work at it for years more. In his best-selling book Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell postulates that mastery of any discipline takes about 10,000 hours worth of dedicated practice. Take heed Wrimos -- there are only 720 hours in the month of November.
Moreover, the quality of the hours themselves also matter. I can sit down and force myself to churn out pages of material each day, but to what end? V.S. Naipaul has said that the real work of the writer is done off the page, not simply in concocting a story, but in having something to say. The amount of words I put on the page is the most concrete but least important measure of my work. If the words aren't any good, then no one's going to want to read them, and isn't that the point of all writing (aside from diary keeping)?
Finally -- and I know this is going to sound old and curmudgeonly -- I don't see the value of doing anything badly. If you really want to write a novel, you should bite the bullet and put in the time and energy to write something that you're going to want to read and hope others will too.
There is effort in novel writing, no doubt, but grapple with it and discover the pleasure of finding that perfect turn of phrase, of seeing the pieces of a scene fall into place, of feeling characters take on weight and substance in your mind. These joys are magnified, deepened, by the frustrations, challenges, and the long, solitary hours of thinking and crafting involved.
Would-be novelist, expect more of yourself. Get it in for the long haul. Make every month the month you write your novel.
Follow Brian Gresko on Twitter: www.twitter.com/briangresko
The novelist Flaubert was known for struggling over getting each word right for its meaning, placement and intent. This "contest" would have led him to suicide.
To be fair, Julia Cameron wrote in "The Artist's Way" suggesting writing for a short time each day, as exercise, of simply whatever comes to mind; keeping the pen going, not worrying about grammar or content. Perhaps the NaNoWriMo (they do need a better acronym!) is this, an exercise to get the juices flowing.
It has been said that each of us has the great American novel inside, waiting to be written; the internet raises new hope in excavating this buried treasure. Unfortunately, most of the advocates (not necessarily NaNoWriMo) align it with the 'skinny person inside' the obese trying to get out - there's money to be made here.
The silver lining here is it also creates more readers.
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I wonder if any of them actually try to get published?
So, in reading your entire post, it truly seems to come across as a lot of anger and bile aimed at people who are enjoying the process of writing and creating who have the audactiy to think we can create a novel in thirty days, because it's taken you a year to create 200 pages. It is unfortunate, that you feel the process of writing should be a struggle for every word. The purpose of NaNoWriMo is to get people off their butts and get them writing. Don't think you can write a novel? Hammer out a rough-draft in 30 days. Get the thoughts on the page. Editing and rewrites come later, but for now, tell your internal editor to shut up and get at least 50K words down on the page. For most, it is a starting point. For a very few, possibly a published book.
One that I know of is Water for Elephants, by Sara Gruen. Available just about everywhere, Amazon.com shows 1740 Five and Four star reviews for this book. And the movie comes out next year. And it started as a NaNo novel.
Yeah, really terrible that Ms. Gruen decided to crank out a book in 30 days.
Then he explained that we should visit a few book stores, look at what finds its way onto shelves and then come to grips with the ugly truth that 95% of the general public buys what amounts to pulp fiction, and only a rare few are interested in reading anything that resembles "literature." In keeping with this, most publishing houses will also choose a "hot story" over a "literary work."
As I recall, about five people dropped the class on account of nothing more than disillusionment.
NaNoWhatever is, perhaps, a bit like the American Idol of writing... albeit different... 99.9% useless dreck with a few potential gold nuggets. However, it IS a useful exercise in getting people who eternally lament that they "should" write a novel off their butts and into a "just DO it" frame of mind.
Sure the NaNoWriMo books will all be crap, but you're learning the most valuable lesson about writing a novel, and that's to keep typing. Novels are built in rewrites, not in the inital composition. They don't teach you that in an MFA program. In MFA programs they fill you full of lofty goals and nonsense about art, and what you're left with is tens of thousands of dollars of debt, a worthless terminal degree, and the inability to finish a project because your first draft doesn't compare to the masters you studied.
Here are the pluses: It brings people, that might not otherwise have met, together to talk about writing and reading. It encourages people who might not ever have tried to write anything to try. Who cares if it encourages amateurism and hobbyists? There is something to be said for doing something for the love of it, not just for the recognition. It also provides a place for amateur writers to discuss their work and process and not worry about sounding like a pretentious git. We can't all unfurl our MFA's at parties and a landscaper writing Doctor Who fanfic on the side might be reluctant to discuss their work with just anybody.
This year I'm just writing for fun another novel I started in 2002 maybe just to stick it to ALL these nay-sayers like yourself who actually believe that taking part in a writing challenge is a waste of time.
Sometimes it's the journey, sometimes it's the goal, sometimes it's BOTH!