NaNo Debrief

NaNo Debrief

So. That was fun. Not.

NaNo was rough this year, and I think I know why.

One, I was over-confident. Most years I finish handily, getting my 50K by the 28th at the latest. Last year it was the fifteenth! So I didn’t worry as I fell farther and farther behind.

Two, I was trying to finish things. It’s actually against the rules of NaNo simply because it’s so hard to do, but I was over-confident. I got this. NaNobigdeal. Even though the stuff I was trying to finish is years old and not where my mind has been for…oh, years.

So. Very hard this year. I went a week or more (twice!) without writing at all. I changed projects mid-stream because I knew I’d lose otherwise. The project I picked up I’d hardly touched in fifteen years.

I threw in random fights. I padded conversations. I slashed two semi-imaginary, bodiless people to write smut when the plot was boring. I wrote ten thousand words in a day.

I won. Five years running, I won NaNo. This is the first time I’ve resorted to shameless (well, not quite shameless) padding, though, and it got me to thinking.

What’s the Point?

There is one, and I have it. The point is…it is…

Well, actually, there are still several very good reasons for me to stick with NaNo. First, I love it. NaNo is a fantastic creative rush, and I can’t explain how much fun that is unless you’ve done it. If I had to guess, though, I’d suggest drinking a bottle of Kahlua while swinging on a trapeze wearing a designer evening gown, and having [insert hottie of your choice] on the other trapeze ready to catch you if you just pull off this amazing flip–and a pit full of saw-toothed alligator-badgers below you if you don’t.

Yeah. It’s like that.

Second, it’s good practice. Anyone who wants to write for publication (yes, even self-pubbing) needs to be able to write to a deadline. Five years, five wins. Can do. Even when it’s pulling donkey-teeth at the last second, when I’m a thousand words from the end and I’d sooner be shot than write those dang words. Done. Gimme my t-shirt.

Third, it’s my excuse. I have some ten novels lying about, and only one† has been edited and polished sufficiently to inflict on strangers to be released to the reading public. The last thing I need is another sloppy first draft lying around. Yet I’m a writer. I need to write, or I get cranky. Hide the whiskey and hope she doesn’t have rabies cranky. Watch out she’s got a—! cranky. If I don’t write, those bloodstains are just gonna get worse. NaNo (and any other challenge I can work in) is my excuse to forget the editing for a bit. Go ahead and write a book. Everyone’s doing it.

And Another Thing

This year was rough, yes. I have fifty thousand words of garbage. Not much of it is salvageable. But it’s not usually like that.

In 2006, Joss tried at the last minute to shoulder aside the Taro/Rafe murder mystery I’d been plotting, but I stuck with the plot I knew and came out with a pretty good story. It needs editing, of course–it’s more of an extremely detailed outline (with about five thousand words of gratuitous sex scenes tacked on the end to make it long enough. >_> ) Still, it’s a good book and I’m glad I wrote it.

2007 was Joss’ year. I don’t think I could have written him without the madness of NaNo. Joss is a loon, even more than Taro, and good lork, did we have fun! It went better, too. Joss is a Gemini, and so fast-thinking, and he was well-suited to the speed of NaNo. There was a gratuitous sex scene, but it was only one, and it was because I was tired, not because I was bored.

For 2008 I wrote Hiro. Reached fifty thousand words and dropped him. Picked him in October of 2009, wrote his ending in two weeks, and then went on to write the second in the trilogy in fifteen days for NaNo ’09. (That’s a less-detailed outline than the others. Whoo, boy, is that one messy! Yet the elements are there.)

Four years, four decent first drafts. They don’t need any more editing than anything else I have lying about, and they’re done. Without NaNo they probably wouldn’t be. Even this year is a blessing in disguise–I still loved the characters and the situation, but after all these years I still didn’t know how to fix it, and I was determined I wasn’t picking it up until I did. Then I need something with ready-made characters and world, but nothing written–and suddenly I have most of what I’ll need to write that book.

But I’m not going on with that now. I just won NaNo. I’m tired. It’s time for a writing-break.

As soon as I get my rabies shot.


† Knight Errant, now available through Turtleduck Press, EEEEEEEE!!! Get one for everyone on your gift-list this year!

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