It’s that time of year when I stand in blatant defiance
of all my writer friends by not preparing
for NaNoWriMo. However, it’s not a lack of preparation in the sense that I’m
going to dive straight into a novel; I’m not thinking, “Come November, I’ll
just begin writing straight from a story concept that I have.” In most
situations, that’s a dangerous thought. But in my case, I do not plan to
participate in NaNoWriMo at all.
Here’s why.
I’m not a lazy writer—or at least, I’m trying not to be
a lazy writer. I have my own writing regimen to maintain, and I stand in awe of
everyone who can slam out bestsellers in four hours with three cups of coffee
(I do not drink coffee). At any rate, though, the thing I have most certainly
discovered when I write is that I’m a…
…very…
…very…
…SLOW…
Writer.
“Deliberate” might be a nicer way of framing it, but I
have come to embrace the fact that it takes me forever to write anything,
including this blog post you’re reading right now. You might relate. In my
case, with my general personality, I cannot stand to leave a problem unsolved
before moving on to the next one. One time, when taking a college test, I
couldn’t immediately solve one of the first ten questions. I stayed on that
problem for who knows how long before I realized that it was eating up too much
of my time, so I had to move on—but the specter of the unanswered question
haunted me for the next 90 problems.
I have the same issue when I write. Word choice, especially when it comes to not
repeating the same word over and over, is a major concern of mine (distributing
the word “problem” in the previous paragraph, for example). Ultimately, in the
pursuit of near-perfect phrasing, my writing cycle looks something like this:
1) Write
half a sentence—stop, think.
2) Write
the other half of the sentence—stop, think.
3) Go
back and edit the sentence as a whole—stop, think.
4) Think
about the next sentence—stop, think again.
5) Write
half a sentence…
…and so on. Some days the cycle is faster than most—I
treasure that days that steps 1 and 2 merge while 3 and 4 take a total
nanosecond to consider—but often my writing process takes a good long while.
Deadlines help, and my daily writing regimen should gradually increase my
output, but right now a string of 500 words might cost me an hour.
It should be pretty obvious now why I’m not really the
NaNoWriMo type.
I hope to try it someday, as the experience does appear
to be a writer’s rite of passage. Lord knows one of my novel concepts has been
begging for attention lately. So, while I sit agonizing over my keyboard, I
salute all you people entering the scrivener’s fray, praying that I can one day
do the same.
Final note that might actually be of practical interest
to you: By the way, if you plan on submitting your precious brainchild to a
publisher, DON’T do it in December. Apparently publishers get a lot of
NaNoWriMo manuscripts that time of year. Just sit back and do some
editing—personally, I edit WAY faster than I write.
