Writing goals

[cjsmith]

A friend of mine insightfully noted that NaNoWriMo is like a crash diet. It's crazy hard for a month, I see impressive results, there's no way it can be sustained, and it backfires in the sense that over the long haul things are worse than before. Both she and I don't ever want to see our NaNo crap again. Through the rest of the winter we sure don't want to write another word. (I suppose it might be different if I didn't have, y'know, a day job. But I do, and NaNo becomes a nearly-untenable sprint from which I need way too much recovery.)

NaNoWriMo also allows me to delude myself that I am working on improving my writing. As a result I let myself get away with not doing the things I really NEED, the things that are HARD, such as editing or getting criticism. After all, I did NaNo, right? That's a heck of a lot of work, right? I can let slide all that stuff I'd secretly rather avoid anyhow, right?

Don't get me wrong: I'm very glad I did it a few times. I did need it. The first time, I had never plotted out anything the length of a short novel, much less created even the shittiest first draft. The sense of community, the deadline, and the "you can do it" atmosphere were all incredibly valuable. Now I know I can create a really crappy draft of a short novel.

So NaNo is fun and gives a sense of accomplishment, and I really did need to do it a couple-few times, but now I need other stuff more.

Dangit. Insightful criticism is far less fun.

Comments

[kuangning]

Heh. I'm telling myself that it's a way to get writing. Forget improving; over the last year I've written exactly two stories. Not "stories that were any good", just "stories". I figure a goal of 50,000 words will force the gates open. After that, well, we'll see.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Yes indeed. It forces the gates open for me as well. Some really good scenes and concepts have come out of my NaNovembers, too!

It may very well be that without NaNoWriMo I won't write at all. If so, that sure tells me something.