A lot of people have asked me why I am not joining in on the NaNoWriMo fun this year. I think I may be the only writer in the world who isn't doing NaNo this year, actually. The truth is, I have tried it in the past years, and while I have had fun in the process, and while yes it is a great creative exercise, I've never completed anything.
The problem with NaNo to me is that you have one month to produce a full novel--considering it's taken me Three years to produce the second draft of Ethereal Heart, I don't think I have it in me to slap together something in just thirty days. I am not going to throw in the series of excuses that you would normally hear, along the lines of 'I've got too much going on', 'not enough time', or other such nonsense. No, to put it simply, I am just too ADD to stick with it. That's probably part of the reason Ive still not finished EH (well, also the fact I haven't gotten any of my beta testers' manuscripts back yet).
But I digress. Really, I am too ADD to stick with NaNo. Granted I have a thousand different story lines that I could throw up on the pire and torch the hell out of until I come up with something to submit, but too many story ideas and not enough "Hoshi, nail yourself down and DO IT!" don't exactly expedite the situation.Also, I like to actually CARE about my writing, and either the story lines are much too detailed to write out in a month, they take too much research, or I care too much about the characters and the story itself to subject it to the month-long creative cram-session that NaNo is. I am afraid that if I do that, I will be so burned out on the story by the end of the month that I won't want to touch it for the next ten years.Now, I am not knocking NaNo in any way. I think it's awesome and my hat is off to those who actually complete it. I just haven't had the driving force behind me, or a good story line to write about. So maybe next year, NaNo, maybe next year.
That being said, I do still plan to put up some writing at least once a week to just make sure I practice. You can never practice too much, ya know?
~Hoshi
No comments:
Post a Comment