I must confess that NaNoWriMo made me hate writing.
I signed up for the 50,000 words in a month challenge back in August. I was excited and filled with anticipation. I practiced writing short stories, working on my fiction story telling abilities. I worried that after writing this blog for so long, that I wouldn’t even know how to start with a fiction story. I had decided that I wanted to write a series of short stories, not really knowing what they would be about or what I was going to do with them.
I had a look around the forums and the Facebook groups but they made me feel ridiculously overwhelmed. I just wanted to write. I didn’t have a plan, maybe that was my downfall.
By the 14th day I was 5 days ahead. We were going away and I wanted to have some time up my sleeve. On the outside I was happy, I was making good time and I was going to meet the goal that was set. On the inside my thoughts were mush. I felt like I was in a cloud.
I enjoy blogging because it allows me to write about different things. I fell out of love with my story because I felt stuck. I had started writing in a genre that I am not overly familiar with, both as a reader and a writer. I tried to rectify this by introducing a second genre. I wrote myself into a corner, I had no idea where to go or if I even wanted to keep going.
I gave up. It was the best thing I could have done. It sounds strange but it’s true. I gave myself a breather of a few days and then sat back down to write a blog post. The words flowed, I felt less clouded about my writing. I was writing for myself again, not for a target. I loved writing again.
Will I sign up for NaNoWriMo again? Maybe, but next time I will go in with a much more clear head about it all. It’s a pretty intense challenge so I think I will be going in with a plan if I do choose to do it again.
Do you work better with a clear plan in place or are you more of a fly by the seat of your pants kind of person?
Linking up with My Home Truths for I must confess
I guess the other reason that I’ve never really gotten into NaNo is the community – sure my local group seem great & even run a retreat each year but they seem to care about the rules of it more than me!
I’m not a fiction writer – which I think NaNo is, not too sure – but I figure my life is full-on enough without adding to the stress especially a month before Christmas!!!
It’s an interesting task, writing at length. If I write a short story, it naturally completes at around 800 words. I recently had to write 2000 for a competition and it altered the story and the experience. Not necessarily badly, but it did make me mindful I need to play around a bit more
It strikes me as a bloodless way to write, I have never even tried it and don’t plan to. Sure, you might get your “book” completed, but of what calibre would it be? Would it actually be something from the heart and guts and soul that people want to read? I very, very much doubt it. On the other hand, I do like the ethic of writing every day. But I think the rule should be that you must write, say 5 pages every single day, but are allowed to rip them up and start again if you need to the next day, not just plug away at it like you are unblocking a sink. Write five pages a day (or whatever your abitrary amount is) and if it turns out to be dead in the water, put it to the side and start something new. Just by writing every single day we improve our skills. But not everything we write should be kept or included.
Well, everyone has a different writing process I suppose. I don’t think just finishing a certain amount of words actually constitutes as “writing”, but I suppose there might be exceptions.
..arbitrary. Frackin sticky keyboard.
I don’t write, except for my blog. In all forms of life I am definitely a ‘fly by the seat of my pants’ kinda girl at the moment, and things are slipping! But I will be stopping for a while very soon, and hope to have some sort of plan when I start again.
I thought it was a good story from what I read here so I hope you’ll be able to finish it one day. At least you were brave enough to give it a go! I’m scared of it because I’ve tried to write a book a few times and always given up. Sigh.
Oh yeah, didn’t mean to imply that what I read here of Teegs wasn’t good cos it was! Just referring to the overall idea of writing like that.
I’m definitely flying by the seat of my pants here, in fact it’s 9.24pm and I currently have a headline and two intro lines for tomorrows post 😉
I don’t think I could take on the beast that is NaNoWriMo. I can write 50,000 words in a month no sweat, I regularly turned out 15K a week when I was in magazines, but like you say, variety is the spice of life. Writing forcibly on a single project would kill me.
I’m not a fiction writer so I’ll never take on NaNoWriMo but good on you for giving it a go, even if you didn’t succeed this year. I’m naturally a fly by the seat of my pants blogger but I have had to train myself to write at set times as I don’t have the time to just write when I want to. It’s not as fun but I’m slowly getting there…
I am definitely more of a planner! Sometimes I wish I wasn’t but there’s no point fighting it!
Have not heard of NaNoWriMo… might have to check it out!
I was frozen by a quest for perfection in my writing, although I’ve never considered myself a ‘real’ writer. I took a break from it, and now I do it just for me. Of course, I like people to read what I have to write, but I’m no longer worried about whether I’m as good as xyz blog and that is such a relief. I couldn’t see myself doing a challenge such as NaNoWriMo unless I had a book already in my head that was just itching to come out, which I don’t, so I won’t!
I’m a bit of both when it comes to blogging, but I’ve never wanted nor tried to write anything other than my blog. I have no interest in writing a book (I have no imagination!). Some times I can sit and smash out a week or two of blog posts in one day, other times I fly by the seat of my pants. I hope NANOWRIMO hasn’t put you off writing for good. Maybe just do it for yourself and give yourself a more realistic time frame to get it done and it will come when it comes? x Aroha
It hasn’t put me off writing altogether thankfully. I think it just made me realise my strengths and that I need to work with those rather than trying to fit into something that isn’t me.
I can’t do forced writing. Over the years, I’ve tried but it always ends up looking forced (to me). I signed up for the challenge to and wrote one page before giving up. I just wasn’t feeling it. Interesting enough I do have 112 draft blog posts now written and I’m half way through my December to do list. So I may take up the challenge again next year. lol
Maybe next year we should create our own blog related challenge!?
Clear for me more idea’s flow, but I am not a writer at all I am just a talker but doing both is just as good it is just about getting my thoughts that are in my head OUT! Bee
Hah! I thought I was the only fail! I signed up then didn’t write. Early this week I think I also left the group. I think I was not well-prepared. Perhaps next year.