naNOvella

It's with due humility that I report my recent fiction writing experiment. I was, most unfortunately, far from success in my 50k writing endeavor. Indeed, I'd be happy to claim a 10% success rate, but it certainly doesn't feel even like that much (more in sentiment than in numbers).

It has, however, given me a lot to (for better or worse) reflect on about my writing, process, &c. &c. &c. Here are some things I've learned:

• While I know that 5k words in possible in a single day, I neglected to remember that one of the key facets of NaNo is that you just need to push forward and often this involves not caring over much about what comes out.
• Also on the 5k dilemma, it is easier to hit that number once you've already warmed up and have it on a practically juicy part. Novellas, because of their brevity, aren't as apt to that kind of fast and loose (ie rambley) flow. 
• It turns out that I'm not as inclined to write straight through a narrative progression as I'd formerly thought. Indeed, that process ran me straight into a number of road blocks. Easier, I found, was jumping section to section as my interest was piqued. (With notes to situate the sections.) This is, however, precisely the opposite of my process for NaNo. Oh well, I guess.

Here are some things I was telling myself to get me going:

• Just write through it. That is to say, write the narrative in a skeletal frame so as to produce the full story in a quick microcosm. Turns out that cuts you off from the fun and interesting part of writing which is following all the little deviations to see where they take you. 

Oddly enough, I have to say that I don't think my heart was in it. Or that my heart and my head were so radically at odds that there was no "in it" to be had.

So my overall sentiment is that this experiment was a failure. It was, however, an instructive failure. Not in the most exciting and enlivening way. No. Instead, the type of instructive that tells you that something is quite amiss and will require you to return for a lengthy stay at the drawing board.

Such that this doesn't turn into purely psychoanalytic self-flagellation, I'll just say that I have a great passion for the narratives that go on growing and mutating inside of my head. I have not yet, however, found a way to accurately express that passion or communicate that vision on the page. A sad fact, but unlikely to deter me from continuing to try. 

My next endeavor follows a path perhaps more suited to my current frustrations as it intends to register them. I'll be taking up a project with the idea of Dostoevsky's The Gambler in mind. The joy of this story is that it is all about extremes, every moment is a precipice in which everything might fall to ground. Should be perfect for the fast paced writing mode I'm feeling write now.

And with that, I'm up off the ground dusting off my trousers and off again to the optimism of my internal narrative screen.

National Novella Writing Week

The following is the first of a new series of self-experiment attempts. The goal is to set forth an idea and give it a go and then to report back on its relative success or failure.

About six years ago (six years ago! geez...) I wrote a (rather terrible) novel for National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). It was great fun! Unfortunately for me, as a student, November is rarely a free enough month for me to attempt a repeat performance. You see, even at 1666 words a day, during a busy month, I can't seem to manage.

The point of NaNoWriMo, however, is to push through your roadblocks and just start writing. Sustaining this for a month can be challenging indeed, not least because it can make you an antisocial hermit during the onset of holiday season.

If you take the antisocial hermit element as a given--a necessity--and then you add a dash of Kerouac, you get my take on this project and my newest self experiment: National Novella Writing Week.

• The time set is dramatically limited: 5 days. 
• The goal is necessarily cut along with it: 25,000 words (half of NaNoWriMo) or somewhere between 75 and 100 pages depending on how you slice it.

The idea is simple: at some point you just have to force yourself to produce. And sometimes the manic panic of too much caffeine and not enough sleep is the only way to really get there. Some stories (or any ideas really) are just sitting there burning a whole in your pocket. And they must emerge! Or die trying. 

At the end of 5 days you could have something like a sizable draft. Or a thin little volume. Of course it will likely need a lifetime of editing (NaNo itself has a plan for this called National Novel Editing Month, in March I believe). But you will have something. A glorious little something.*

So I have some evidence that such an attempt might be possible. Firstly the previously alluded to Kerouac produced a full manuscript for On the Road (on the infamous scroll) in just a short set of days (with I'm sure a good deal of Benzedrine to help). Tho to be fair, he had previously worked on a number of drafts for the novel and would go on to massively revise the scroll. Nonetheless it was a serious production for a short period of time. 

The other evidence is more personal and is actually why I decide to do NaNo in the first place. I know I'm capable of writing 5k words in one day. Whether or not that is possible to do 5 days in a row in anything like a coherent manner is another matter entirely. But well worth the experiment. 

If this works out, imagine the possibilities! Opening up the space of a five day work week to so many types of creation. Maybe you could write/record an EP in 5 days? Maybe you paint a painting? Or a painting series? (Having no context for how long it might take to paint one painting, I really can't say.) What I mean is something small but definitive. A production or at least a strong rough start of one. (I also would be opposed to renaming this National Novella Manuscript Writing Week to make the tenuousness of the production more clear in the very title.)

Well. I'm off to go give it a whirl. And you can expect a post on how it is going or has gone. I can't say I have the highest of hopes, but I certainly am interested to see what becomes of it.

*I suppose I should address how, if at all, this differs from NaNoWriMo. I doesn't nor do I desire it to. This is precisely the same structure as NaNo with only modified constraints and goals. The issue is simply that NaNo can't work for everyone in exactly the size and shape it is now. I am sure Baty et al would encourage people to develop their own forms appropriate to their own tasks. Their goal, as I take it, is simply to help push people into creating the things they desire, to make time for these creations and to actually see them through. An admirable goal and one I see no reason to amend. If there are any substantive differences that I discover along the way, I'll report back upon them.