Camp NaNoWriMo: Day 1 – Welcome to Hell…
NaNo in summer? Oh goody, because the Hell that is November NaNo just isn’t enough to satisfy my sadomasochistic tendencies.
To those of you that have done NaNo before you know how stressful it can be. A lot of newcomers like to think it will be ‘fun’ and ‘a laugh’…its fun to watch as their souls are slowly crushed through 30 days of Hell…but what they don’t realise is that NaNo is a lot of bloody hard work! Welcome to Hell!
You see, it sounds like ‘a good idea’ and it sounds like ‘a laugh’…and in some ways it is! After all we’re all writers, shouldn’t we strive to complete as many words as we can each and every day? But the problem comes when you pause to take breath. During a normal day of writing, I can sit down, relax, let inspiration find me and then tap away until I feel satisfied with my progress, or until something shiny distracts me – whichever comes first – but with NaNo there isn’t much time to pause for breath.
Sure, some of the newcomers are on holiday, or work in shifts, or have their mums making them tea and washing their clothes, but the majority of us will be juggling careers, commuting, cleaning, cooking, and a whole other assortment of responsibilities starting with the letter C.
A lot of people will also be taking this opportunity to mess about and just have ‘a laugh’ and as soon as they hit 50k, they’ll scream and shout about how awesome they are and writing is a piece of piss and they didn’t even need to edit their ‘awesomeness’…I’m not being pessimistic, have a look around the NaNo forums and look at some of the comments people make…
“I’ve never wanted to write before but it sounds funny, I bet I can get published and make millions…people who say writing is hard are stupid.”
“I’ve never read a horror book before, don’t like them, but I’m going to try and write one – after all I’ve watched at least four horror movies in my lifetime…that’s enough, right?”
“Yes, I got 10k in one day, it was easy once I renamed my main character ‘Jeff Jacobs the Third, Ruler of all-that-he-sees-and-all-that-he-walks-upon Junior’ and the town he lives in to ‘Grumble thorp upton ville town ton’.”
“For anyone struggling with word counts, just include recipes, or pointless exposition, or write the full Latin name for every plant the main character walks past.”
The depressing thing is these comments aren’t half as stupid as some of the real ones you’ll find on the NaNo forums. All of the above comments are based on real threads I have found.
But I’m painting it in a bad image, there are oodles of helpful people on the forum, a shit load in fact, and the majority of people taking part do want to write, and won’t stop at 50k. There are plenty of practical and constructive threads which can not only help with any technical problems you may be having but can also boost your confidence and give you enough motivation to complete the challenge.
I think the reason NaNo is so stressful is because you’re cramming in 6 months of writery melodrama into such a short period. Writers like to have days where they ‘give up’ and swear they’ll never put pen to paper again, days where they just want to write dialogue, days where they want to research something that isn’t even relevant just because it might be later, days where you type the word ‘jam’ over and over and over again because you know you’re doomed as writer and there’s no point in going on. We also have positive days…sometimes…where words flow from our fingers with no effort at all, characters appear fully formed and take charge of the story, where you sit back and say “Holy crapnuggets, this is amazing!”.
These are all important days for writers, but to cram them into one month is dangerous. That’s why we get so temperamental during NaNo; it’s like 30 days of writer’s PMS. We’re on edge and all focus is directed towards daily word counts and hitting that magical number at the end of the month.
But being wound up so tight also works for us as well, it means we’re alert and fidgety…and fidgety writers tap away at the keyboard like a rat in a maze tapping that big red button for their next tasty treat. Being wound so tight means when we hit a goal or target we release the stress in massive bursts of squealing relief and joy. We punch the air every time we’re ahead of the suggested word count and cry with delight when we’re edging closer and closer to 50k.
So yes, NaNo can be very enjoyable…and it is. But don’t forget it can also be very stressful. Find patterns and habits that work for you, find something that will help encourage you on those days you just don’t feel like writing, because when there’s only a month to get 50k done you can’t really afford days off. The best advice I can offer you is to find someone else taking part and set up a buddy system of encouragement and support.
Visit the Camp NaNo site regularly to read the advice and counsel that the moderators offer. Obviously because this is the first year the NaNo team have runCampNaNo, there are a few teething problems – but please just bear with them while they get it all sorted. After all the most important thing is that you get your 50,000 words written in 31 days.
Yep, that’s right I nearly forgot to mention this…31 days! 31! A whole extra day compared to November NaNo! Wooooo! (But that doesn’t mean you can slack off one day, keep tapping away at that novel!)
Right, that’s enough babble for me. I don’t want to wear myself out before I can get today’s word count finished.
Good luck everyone!
Banana-fanna-mo-wrimo is useful. It is what kickstarted me writing again last year. I wrote an awful novel that began with tons of internal monologues and jumbles of ideas and finally coalesced into a decent thriller, but from a boring character's perspective. I am redrafting it now, and was toying with joining Camp Nano again.
But I'd never read the forums or look for advice.
Writing is a solitary exercise. When we seek company, it is for encouragement, validation, that we are not spinning our wheels. However, I'm beginning to believe the mantra that every writer has one million words of crap in them before they can be published. I started writing when I was in 2nd grade, wrote a crap novel in high school, wrote a crap novel last year… and now my stories are good enough that people like them.
The practice is what did it. You know good stories, because you read. You write because you have stories to tell. Just do it, if it's crap so what? It can be salvaged in edits, if the story is good. If the story sucks, it's practice for your next story.
My suggestion would be to just write, and aim for the 1667 words a day required, as long as you keep moving the story along.
And best of luck.
Fook it – I'm in… again!
This time for real!
Join my Camp, Steve.
Thomas, you talk a lot a sense, bud (no joke!).
Regards,
Col