NaNoWriMo

If you've been in the writing community for only a short amount of time, odds are you've heard about NaNoWriMo. You may have even done it before. You may think we're crazy for even attempting it. Whatever your feelings on NaNo, I wanted to make a post about it.

This will be my first year. I'm fifteen and I recently completed the first draft of HOPING FOR RAIN, a YA contemporary novel. I'm confident and excited and scared to freaking death. I hope that's a good thing.

So here is a list. I like lists.

What NaNoWriMo is for:
- Killing your Inner Editor...that jerk who deserves to die until we're ready to consult him. Then he can be raised from the dead, I promise.
- Writing to a deadline, because God knows us writers suck at them sometimes (I'm looking at you, Twitter! Also Tumblr)
- Working within a community. Already, half a month before November, I've become part of an amazing community. Just knowing that so many others are writing with you is an incredible motivation.
- Quantity over quality. NaNoWriMo gives you a chance to suck. You can't edit (or you shouldn't, anyway), which leaves room to just write write write! Your first draft is going to suck, let's face it, but that's what NaNoWriMo encourages. I find that strangely liberating.

What NaNoWriMo is NOT for:
- Producing a crappy first draft every year and then never looking at it again.
- Editing
- Going in blind, without even an idea of what you're going to write about.
- Listening to that asshat, the Inner Editor

 Just remember that once November ends, you're not finished. A first draft is like the first coat of paint on a canvas, or any other really bad metaphors. Grab a writing buddy or a CP and, when the month is up, tear it to shreds. Watch as a whole different story emerges. And you'll thank yourself.

 So who's with me? Who's decided to be a crazy person and take on the challenge that is NaNo?

Comment below with your NaNo stories :) I'd love to hear them.

"Finishing" a Novel

Picture this. You're sitting at your computer or your typewriter (SOMEBODY in the world must use a typewriter) and typing with anxious fingers. Then you do it, you type the final word. You have a finished novel, you wrote a BOOK. This is a cause for celebration. So you bask in your glory and imagine the moment your book becomes a New York Times bestseller.

But you're not finished.

It was your first draft, your first attempt at the story you're trying to create. It's far from finished, and when you look back on it a month later you know it.

So you rewrite it, and rewrite it again. And eventually you have a piece of work chiselled down to its finest parts. It's beautiful. But it's not finished. You haven't got an agent; you haven't got a guarantee it's worth it.

Then you get your agent, and they sell it to a publishing house. EUREKA! you say. NOW I'VE FINISHED! But, guess what? You're not finished. The most important part of a book is having people read it, and that conversation between reader and writer is what we writers yearn for. Your book isn't on the shelves yet. It's not done.

Okay, you say, as you look at your beautiful book on the beautiful bookstore shelves. NOW I'm done. You open the cover to a random page and you stare in horror. A TYPO??? IN MY BOOK???

The truth is, you will never be finished. You will always want to keep editing, revising, redoing. You've got a long way to go until the book is on the shelves, and even then there's more you could do to it. The point I'm trying to make is that you have to give yourself permission to suck. Your first draft IS going to suck; it's The Law. Don't beat yourself up about it.

You tell yourself that you're finished, that you've written your book. But for us, the real writers, well...we never stop writing.