NaNope

In three days time, National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) will start. The idea is to write every day, and basically produce a novel or its equivalent, the goal being 50,000 words during the month. James is participating. So is Daphne. This year, I am not.

I "did" NaNo last year. We were at the kick-off at Dragon's Lair, and that was very cool. Every day, for the most part, I wrote up to the goal and I ended up somewhere in the 80k range, I believe? I don't remember exactly, and I'm not going to look it up. Daphne did a good job, at 30k words, her own goal based on some recommendations made by the kids' program.

Why not give it a go again this year?

Several reasons. The biggest is that I felt burnt out and eaten alive by December 1, 2012. I had a story idea, and I wrote that for the first 50,000ish words. Then I ran out of idea and hadn't developed it enough to keep going. Instead, I wrote essays. Every day, or every writing session, I would give myself a topic. I ended up plumbing some pretty dark depths and felt like I had been through the ringer. I haven't gone back and looked at what I wrote. I am pretty sure I hate it and never want to see it again.

I realized that there are demons that shouldn't necessarily be exorcised onto the page. Sometimes, you've already buried them, and digging them back up is an emotional zombie apocalypse.

Another reason I'm not doing it is that I don't need "motivation" to write. I write a lot, and although my writing frequency and manner has changed over the years, I'm happy with it. I used to update my personal blog a lot more frequently, as in every few hours sometimes. The Facebook Status Update has done away with most of that fluff, so I only write when I have something to say. (This is based in importance as I rate it, not you, see.)

A third reason is that the mentality of "write as much as you can, get it on paper, don't think too much and don't edit" doesn't produce my best work. I like to craft as I go, and that can be slow. But I'm also competitive, and I liked to win the writing sprints, so I'd just babble. You're not supposed to care whether what you wrote under these circumstances is crap, but I care. I don't want to waste my time producing crap. (Insert disgusting biological humor here.)

So, I've designated myself the official snack-provider and cheer-leader of NaNo 2013. I can't wait to print out the "winner" certificates for my family and to see what they come up with. And I'm betting that this year, I'll have a lot more fun than I did last time.