Na”No”WriMo Updates?

Alright, it’s now December 2, 2008 and Na”No”WriMo is officially over for another eleven months.  So, gentle (and not so gentle) readers, I want to know:

1) Did you participate?  If so, how many words did you finish?

2) What genre were you writing (since, as it has been pointed out to me, 50,000 words could put you in the vicinity of a completed YA novel)?

3) What now?  Are you going to continue the story?  Put it aside and work on something else?  Take the next eleven months off?

4) Are you planning on doing Na”No”WriMo next year?  Why or why not?

5) Are you pleased with the quality of the work you did?  Do you even remember what you wrote?

6) How stressful did you find the whole experience?

As anyone who reads my blog on a regular basis knows, I didn’t participate, and have no real desire to do so.  I only wrote about 20,000 words last month (which is less than I’m planning on writing this month), but I’ve managed to advance myself to the point where I can legitimately finish the first draft by the end of the year (about 25,000 words to go).  I’m writing a fantasy novel, and as I’ve said, I’m going to keep on going.  I’m proud of everything I’ve written and look forward to completing the draft.

I don’t plan on participating in next year’s “event” either — I expect to be knee deep in novel #2, whether it’s in the drafting or revision stage.  The stress level is one reason I will not participate in Na”No”WriMo — while I believe it’s easily in the realm of possibility to churn out 1600+ quality words per day, I know that I can’t do it day after day after day (at least not while I have to have a day job).  Having it in the back of my mind that I’m “failing” or “falling behind” would only lead to greater stress levels, and leave me feeling dejected.

Still, I’m interested in everyone else’s experiences in November, whether you participated or not.

Na”No”WriMo

For those of you who have never read a writing blog, or who have simply had their heads in the proverbial sand recently, I would like to note that today is the seventh day of Na”No”WriMo, or National “Novel” Writing Month.

Now, as many of you know, this event is basically an event where the participants are encouraged to write 50,000 words in one month.  I have two comments about it, one positive and one negative (although I’ll leave the bashing to those slightly more emphatic about it like Ken Kiser).

First, I want to explain why the “No” is in quotes.  The goal of this event is to write 50,000 words.  That is not a novel.  It may be a novella, but in reality a novella generally tops out at 40,000 words.  This leaves the end result of November somewhere in between a novella and a novel, which is generally somewhere in the 80,000 word minimum range.  So in reality, you end up with an overly long novella, or a way too short novel.

Second, I want to respond to the criticism that Na__WriMo encourages people to write crap.  Ken has been particularly derisive about this (not to single you out or anything ).  To get to the 50,000 word mark, you have to write 1,667 words/day.  While this is more than most “recreational” writers do (and by recreational, I really mean writers that are doing this in addition to a day job), and more than some professional writers do, it’s not within the realm of the impossible.

I’ve had days where I’ve written as many as 2,000 words (give or take a couple), and I don’t think that they came out crappy.  To those people who say that it’s too fast a pace, I ask this question: what makes your pace more reasonable?  If more words/day = crappier writing, wouldn’t you best be served by writing less than 100 words per day?  Less than 10?  Maybe you should spend 2 hours per day coming up with the one word for the day?

I’m sure I’ll have more thoughts about it as the days go on, but these were a couple of things that were on my mind right now.