• Word Counts and Plot Twists and Whiners...oh my

    I put this graph in because it simultaneously irritates and encourages me. I can be proud of my NaNoWriMo word count, and at the same time completely aware that I'm a tad behind.

    All word count aside, writing this novel at breakneck speed has been a fascinating writing experience. There are Those Who Scoff at all these furiously typing novelists as rank amateurs who have no right to call themselves anything but typists. As a creative writing professor I have very little to say to such people, because I know their pathology. When you've spent your life kneeling before the Gatekeepers of Academia and kissing their asses for a lousy publication in some university literary mag no one's ever heard of, it can make you a little cranky. Fine.

    I'm not including links to such unhappy writers for a couple of reasons. First, because they want us to. Throwing an elitist and edgy bomb out into the the blogosphere and then turning off the comments forces others to respond by writing on their own blogs and LINKING. It's a nice way to manipulate the old Technorati count and fluff one's overinflated ego. Second, these writers clearly haven't been reading contemporary creative writing pedagogy. Separating the acts of invention and revision is standard operating procedure. And academia has been throwing cold water on the fiery hoops of The Graduate Workshop Model for years now. When Those Who Scoff do a little more research and turn their comments back on, I might consider linking. The blogosphere is not a fiefdom. If the serfs don't want to fill your larder, they don't have to.

    In the interim, I'm having a very good time with this National Novel Writing Month business and so are my students. We are all learning a lot about how the creative process works under the stress of meeting word count deadlines and the pure magic of letting the story BE. I'm even looking forward to rewriting this bad-boy in December when there's "world enough and time."

    I began with a character and nothing else. The story twists and blooms right in front of me every time I sit down to write. My students are blooming as well. They're writing Shitty First Drafts. They're woefully behind or stunningly ahead of everyone else. They're sitting down every single day with the words.

    They don't have to write the Next Great American Novel. The NaNo provides writing community so there's no need for the tortured-novelist-in-a-garret scenario. That's just a myth anyway. I'm proud of their fortitude and epiphanies and what they're learning about the work and craft of noveling. The real lessons in craft, of course, always come in rewrite anyway.

    So those of you out there frantically slamming out your novels, keep writing. Those of you out there scoffing, keep on telling those damned kids to get out of your yard, I guess. I won't be reading your crankiness or linking up so others can, but it's a free blogosphere and you have every right to say what you want. Knock yourselves out.


    9 comments → Word Counts and Plot Twists and Whiners...oh my

    1. She shoots...she SCORES!!

      Very nice. I didn't link to the haters either, for much the same reasons.

      I'm slightly behind you on word count, hovering somewhere around the 22000 mark, I think. I'm guesstimating until I get around to digitizing, and I have a feeling I'll get a pleasant surprise then. I'm estimating 250 a page (still hand-writing, I confess), but last batch I typed up came to an average of 265. Pretty close, but the extra adds up, especially when I fall twenty or forty pages behind on transcription (oops). I have my fingers crossed.

      I'n't this FUN? :-)

    2. Look at you and your word count!It IS fun. Despite my completely frantic schedule this month, I wouldn't have missed it for the world. I'm so glad you're having a good time.

      The conference I'm attending in San Antonio next week means I'll probably be writing by hand for a few days myself. I look forward to it, actually. Not the transcribing, though.

      And just so you know, there are also three profs in my department plugging away at this NaNo, and all of us are first-timers. We're delighted with the experience.

      Keep crossing your fingers (if you can still move them) on that word count. And plan a celebration for the end!

    3. I'm still not above 10,000 but I have written every day this week. Couldn't write the first two weeks. I've got a three day weekend and will see if I can make some headway. Plenty of time yet to make the word count.

    4. I spend the first five minutes of every NaNo typing session in the self-martyrdom of NaNoMath:
      How many words per day from NOW until the end of the month do I need to finish?
      It's a constantly changing figure as I fall further behind, then catch up a little, then stumble again.
      But each time I come up with a sum (currently 2295, or about four typewritten, single-spaced pages) it sounds do-able. Heck, I can do four pages. Anyone can do four pages.
      Right?

    5. As far as I am concerned, a writing professor has the last say on whether Nano is a worthwhile exercise.

      Hear that interweb? Case closed.

    6. What Strikethru said!

      I cleared 30k yesterday. I'm still about a day behind, mostly because I took Saturday off to go to another music workshop dealie and a concert. Hopefully I can still get there....

      And of course my story doesn't remotely resemble what I set out to write. But I've come to expect that.

    7. Back from the National Writing Project Conference! Although I'm woefully behind on word count, that's not going to stop me.

      Everyone, put on your seatbelts...bumpy ride and such. I'm finishing this NaNo and so can all of you!

      By the way, the folks at the conference ALL agreed - NaNoWriMo is a useful writing experience in and out of the classroom. Period.

    8. Love to see all those green bars in that graph, Monda. You're close enough to taste victory now... go go go!

    9. My hands are so stiff I can't hold my coffee cup.

      I'm going to get a straw for the coffee and finish this thing up.

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