Diary of a Mad Editor

I’m at least halfway sorry I signed-up for NanoWriMo this year. While I have made it to the 12000 word mark after one week of writing (working on the manuscript 2 hours in the morning and 1 hour before bedtime), and have every realistic expectation of making the required 50000 words by midnight November 30, I really can’t stand this NanoWriMo-as-religion atmosphere that pervades the Nano website. Don’t get me wrong, I like the idea of forcing myself to write, dragging myself kicking and screaming out of my own damn way, but enough is enough with the pep talks and these arbitrary daily word count goals. Contrary to the philosophy of the organization, writing a novel is not a community activity — it’s you, by your self, slugging it out with the blank page. And the day I take writing advice from some 14 year-old fanfic writer who’s written 3 unpublishable nanowrimo novels in three years who can manage 50000 words on day one, but can’t manage to write anything anyone would ever publish is the day I will hang-up my spurs and call it quits. It may be the goal of nanowrimo that participants write 50000 in 30 days, but that is not my primary goal. My goal is to have a manuscript that I can revise into something that is remotely publishable. Any idiot can slap 50000 words down if they don’t care what those 50000 words are. In fact, the worse you write, the easier it is. Quite frankly, while I’m sure that what I’m writing is bad, I’m not really looking to write the worst novel ever written just so I can make it to the finish-line. No, I have no pre-set daily goals. I don’t give a flying fuck if I make it to 15000 words today or not. The world will not end if I don’t. Because I know there will be days when I cannot manage many words and there will be days when I hit my stride. So, forget the Pep Talks, I’m pacing myself, dammit!