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

[kimatha.livejournal.com]

I think we understand each other. :)

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Ayep. :)

Now it's time to put my money where my mouth is by coming up with something more productive. Maybe I need words-per-day goals, maybe I need milestones to shoot for, maybe I need a deadline for joining a crit group. I need to figure it out and do it. Otherwise I may as well do NaNo again.

[hitchhiker.livejournal.com]

you should start a blog, actually. the net has revived the dying art of essay writing.