Saturday, October 9, 2010

NaNo Love

it's almost november, which means i am starting to see some variation of this statement pop up all over the internet:
"You can't write a good book in 30 days."

to which i say: Bullshit.

..unless someone says it directly to me, in which case i say, "oh, you're totally right, i personally can't write a good book in 30 days... but i can get one hell of a running start."

in fact, i bet i could write most of a book in 30 days.
i bet i could write enough to be motivated to finish that book.
i bet i could spend the next few months revising that book.
i bet i could land an agent.
and i bet a year later i could be on sub to publishers with that book.

you see where i'm going with this? BUTTER was a NaNoWriMo manuscript. and it's a lot better than the book i spent a year writing before that.

i did not finish a book during NaNo; i did not reach the 50,000-word goal; but i did learn a lot. for starters, i learned i write better when i'm fast and focused. i also learned NaNo is a great way for me to get back in the habit after my always-busy month of october, when i rarely write a word. finally, i learned feeling accountable to a community of writers is good motivation for me. i never wanted to show up to a NaNo group-write or log on to AW without a new word count.

every NaNo veteran has their own reasons for participating - or not participating, if it doesn't work for them. but this post is especially for the writers who haven't done it but want to try. i just don't want anyone to be discouraged if they see or hear: "You can't write a good book in 30 days."

maybe you can't. but maybe you can. or maybe that's not even the point. but if you want to give it a shot, you shouldn't let anyone else's opinion discourage you.

plus, i just don't like that word: "can't."
ick.
yes you CAN!

3 comments:

Susanne Winnacker said...

I decided to do NaNo for the first time this year. I'm excited! Can't wait to start working on the project I've chosen for NaNo. I think it'll be a great motivation for me and maybe I manage to write 50k words. :D

erinjade said...

yay Susanne! good luck!!
i'm thinking of doing bi-weekly blog posts during NaNo for people to share their word counts.
if i do, come play along with me, k? :D

Marieke said...

I'm still undecided, but Nano is beginning to sound so tempting! :D