The Unpredicatable Nature of the Craft

I have good news! After being completely burned out from trying to participate in NaNo and unable to write for weeks, I've fully recovered! Chapter 12 is now finished.

I absolutely love this chapter. If I could hug and snuggle this chapter, I would. Which is kinda funny if your humor is as black as mine. It happens to be the most violent chapter I've written thus far. Funny in an ironic way, I suppose.

So here's a hypothesis. 5 day writing marathon (NaNo) results in 3 weeks of recovery time. That makes sense to me, though I didn't expect that at all and never would have predicted a 3 week recovery time. I swear, I will never do a writing marathon like that again...

Now moving on the chapter 13!

P.S. Don't forget to enter the Mid-Winter contest and tell all your friends. New sharing links on the right *points to the right under profile picture).

5 Day Writing Marathon

As I said at the beginning of this month as well as in the October newsletter, I was going to post a daily word count in honor of National November Writing Month (NaNo). For those who are unaware, the goal is to write and finish a book by the end of November with a word count of at least 50, 000.
I got started. I was writing like a madwoman. Then I got on a roll and couldn't stop. I finished a book. I wrote over 65, 000 words in 5 days.

And this is why I will never, ever directly participate in NaNo. I think I lost a couple of author friends as a result of posting word counts and my 5 day writing marathon. Although, I must say, I did receive a lot of support and love once I was finished the book. And that made me feel good.

For the past week, I've been brain dead. I even had to get a friend to help me with restocking my groceries, which was a tad embarrassing. I couldn't think clearly, never mind do any creative writing. It's a good thing I planned the Mid-Winter Contest well in advance. Still, I couldn't figure out what the problem was for the life of me. And then tonight I remembered.

5 day writing marathon...

And this is suppose to inspire people to write more? How? By killing all brain cells??? Geez. NaNo should come with a Surgeon General's warning.

WARNING: Participating in NaNo, in any way, may induce zombie-like behavior, severely lowered IQ, and an unhealthy consumption of iced cappuccino. You have been warned.

I have learned some lessons from all of this.

1) NaNo has been proven to be bad for my health.
2) If I'm going to do a major writing marathon, plan it well in advance and stock up on all needed supplies beforehand.
3) I write all the time as it is, doing a writing marathon is pointless and frankly, stupid. See lesson #1.

I suppose if circumstances were different, I'd recommend participating in NaNo as long as the above lessons are kept in mind. But, for me, I can't participate in something like that. It's long since been proven I need to work at my own pace, no matter how fast or how slow that may be.

And for that, I won't apologize. But kind warm thanks to everyone who showed their support.

For everyone else still working on their NaNo projects, I wish you all the best luck!

Now.... grab your friends and enter the Mid-Winter Contest! Everyone is a winner! :D

http://www.lilyauthor.com/contest.html

Contest details: http://lilyauthor.blogspot.com/2010/11/mid-winter-contest.html

If there's any problems viewing the form, try a different browser or email: admin@lilyauthor.com.

This is Lily, author of Dark Fiction, signing out and going back to regenerating...

Word Counts

Rough estimated total: 22000 words

And on the first day Of NaNoWriMo, I learned two valuable lessons.

1 - I can't keep track of exact word counts to save my life.

2 - Obsessively checking word count every time I stop to breathe, is very, very distracting.

Believe me, I understand the whole point of NaNo is to get people writing, and yes, one way to do that is by checking word counts. However, you could also do it like a professional, and just write until the story is finished. That's what I've been doing, I've almost reached the halfway goal of 50000 words for NaNo and it's only November 2nd.

See what I'm saying?

I'm a little surprised and a tad disappointed the organizers of NaNo are effectively teaching people very bad habits. The fact is word counts really isn't a measure of anything. Someone could have a final word count of a mere 500 words and still have a completed book, if all they're writing is a children's book with illustrations. Industry standard for traditional publishing, for first time novel manuscripts, is 64000. 50000 wouldn't be enough and automatically rejected by agents.

I know, plenty of people will disagree with me, and this is my very personal and humble opinion. I just don't feel, in all honesty, that participating in NaNo and the obsessive word counts will get anyone closer to becoming a professional author. There are much better ways to stay inspired and keep writing. I'm sorry, but that's just the way I feel. We're all entitled to our opinions.

I'll keep posting what word counts I can. Hopefully I don't discourage anyone from writing, because that's the last thing I'd want.

Now, if you don't mind, I have a book to finish up...