so, nanowrimo's coming up
November's next week already, I guess, and that means it's time for NaNoWriMo.
I've been doing NaNo for years, this will be my seventh, and I would never even consider missing my one non-guilty first draft of the year. It's maybe dumb to feel guilty about writing first drafts, but if left unchecked, I will spew out a million thirty thousand word tiny little novel-like beasts, so a little bit of guilt is probably good here, because without it I would never rewrite or revise anything.
This year's NaNo, for me, is a companion/sequel to something I wrote a couple of years ago and is probably the best thing I've ever written. There is no demand for this sequel; the first book hasn't been agented or anything (I'm even taking a break on querying because I think the first chapter needs to be rewritten, and I'll look at it again post-NaNo), but I like to have at least a first draft of every book that could possibly come out of a story written as soon as is possible.
I think I'm this way because of my... half-pantsing sort of way of doing things. First drafts, for me, or overblown outlines. I don't know what's going to happen until the first draft is done, so if I'm writing something that could potentially be a series, I don't know what'll happen in the series until the first draft is done. Shit might still change, of course; my fall-back project, which I mostly work on between drafts (it's what I'm working on right now, after finishing the second draft of the Fantasy Project That Shall Not Be Named But Showed Me, Yeah, I Can't Do Fantasy), has a completely different ending now than it did earlier.
Part of me kind of wonders what the point of all of this is considering I have sold no writing except a dumb little article about the Fighting Sioux's name change to the Fighting Hawks or whatever it is now, but I don't think I'd ever stop writing for that. Mostly, I write because it's fun. Obviously I want people to read what I write. Obviously I want people to be as passionate about my stories and characters as I am. But I am, and that's really what matters to me?
I dunno, man. But NaNo's next month.
I've been doing NaNo for years, this will be my seventh, and I would never even consider missing my one non-guilty first draft of the year. It's maybe dumb to feel guilty about writing first drafts, but if left unchecked, I will spew out a million thirty thousand word tiny little novel-like beasts, so a little bit of guilt is probably good here, because without it I would never rewrite or revise anything.
This year's NaNo, for me, is a companion/sequel to something I wrote a couple of years ago and is probably the best thing I've ever written. There is no demand for this sequel; the first book hasn't been agented or anything (I'm even taking a break on querying because I think the first chapter needs to be rewritten, and I'll look at it again post-NaNo), but I like to have at least a first draft of every book that could possibly come out of a story written as soon as is possible.
I think I'm this way because of my... half-pantsing sort of way of doing things. First drafts, for me, or overblown outlines. I don't know what's going to happen until the first draft is done, so if I'm writing something that could potentially be a series, I don't know what'll happen in the series until the first draft is done. Shit might still change, of course; my fall-back project, which I mostly work on between drafts (it's what I'm working on right now, after finishing the second draft of the Fantasy Project That Shall Not Be Named But Showed Me, Yeah, I Can't Do Fantasy), has a completely different ending now than it did earlier.
Part of me kind of wonders what the point of all of this is considering I have sold no writing except a dumb little article about the Fighting Sioux's name change to the Fighting Hawks or whatever it is now, but I don't think I'd ever stop writing for that. Mostly, I write because it's fun. Obviously I want people to read what I write. Obviously I want people to be as passionate about my stories and characters as I am. But I am, and that's really what matters to me?
I dunno, man. But NaNo's next month.
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