This will be my third nano, but for those who are
just discovering the NaNoWriMo, (National Novel Writing Month) it is a writing
challenge that takes place every November, where you are required to write a
minimum of 1,667 words a day. This results in a total of 50,010 – enough for a
rough/first draft of a novel.
Completing this number of words uses the technique
of fast drafting. Now, while I’m not an aficionado of the horror genre, (okay,
I’m a scaredy-cat) I am a fan of Stephen King’s On Writing, which is part autobiography and part writing advice. In
his book King says: ‘Once I start work on a project, I don’t stop and I don’t
slow down unless I absolutely have to. If I don’t write every day, the
characters begin to stale off in my mind ... worst of all the excitement of
spinning something new begins to fade ... I like to get ten pages a day, which
amounts to 2,000 words.’
Please, don’t misunderstand me as I’m not equating
my nano effort with Stephen King’s writing. Nonetheless, this does sound very
similar to the style which nano participants adopt to complete the challenge.
Fast drafting (or sprint writing, as I’ve heard it
called) is exactly what it says ... getting your story down as fast as
possible. Some people plan before writing, others do it as they go. Some can’t
help but edit a bit as they write, others don’t.
For myself, I write a chapter outline containing a
brief description of the major scenes. As long as I can witness those scenes in
my mind, all I have to do is write, to the best of my ability, what is living
in my imagination. One consistent piece of advice - which ties in with King’s
method - is don’t get knotted up about what you write in your explosion of
creativity.
There are criticisms too, the main one being that a draft done in this manner will be an editing nightmare. Another I’ve read
is that your time would be better spent reading than writing rubbish. The
latter was clearly written by someone (a long suffering editor?) whose desk was
swamped with a tsunami of post nano novels.
Yet it’s because we read wonderful books,
which fill our heads with stories, sparking the desire to write our own, that
we participate. And, I agree, there are standards of what is acceptable in a
novel, but there is no one way to achieve that goal.
Fast drafting - whether for the nano or not - has
its pressures. Staying focussed and keeping up the pace can be intense, but it
can also be an invigorating, exhilarating experience.
Writing
Update
The publication date for Tatya’s Return approaches, and I’m experiencing high levels of nervous
anticipation as I gallop towards the finishing line. I’ll complete the final
edits today, then a list of points to check, the cover to finalize, the
formatting and uploading. This time I’m planning to use Smashwords and
distribute to the other eplatforms as well as Amazon. The actual date will
depend on the length of time between uploading and appearing on the various
websites, but barring any unforeseen events, it will be before the end of
October (she says with her fingers, and toes, crossed – after all Halloween
approaches).
So this week
will be a busy one, and as the anticipation builds, so does the sense of
satisfaction. I feel unbelievably lucky to be on this journey.
Today’s Haiku
is
skin on skin love –
at
that place where mine and yours touch
do
we become one
Useful Links:
This
is a great article for anyone considering self-publishing:
And
for anyone who wants to check out the NaNoWriMo:
http://nanowrimo.org/
I’d love it if
you checked out my debut novel, One
Summer in Montmartre, or popped over to Wattpad and read any of my posted
stories ... just click on the links to the right.
Join
me on Twitter at: teagankearney@modhaiku
To
all story lovers out there, good reading, and to those of you who write, good
writing.
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