An Open NaNote.

[persephone_kore]

I suspect that title looks more pretentious than punnish at this point, but I guess I'll leave it.

I have been waffling back and forth about NaNoWriMo for some weeks. I did it last year, yes. (To anyone who hasn't forgotten about "Something Better Than This": not abandoned. Honest. *mumbleblush*) On the other hand, last year I also kept going back to the Rules Forum (kind of like picking at a pimple) and growing increasingly annoyed. And this year I've been alternating between enthusiasm for the idea I used to think NaNoWriMo was about -- getting people around to writing, en masse and crazy -- and disgust with myself for thinking about going along with an event that deliberately excluded and discouraged anyone who, say, liked to cowrite (and was willing to go for 50K apiece) or had been trying to get around to getting past the beginning rather than starting at all.

So yesterday I actually signed up, in an excess of enthusiasm, and last night I ran across an example of the discouragement and went to sleep and woke up gloomy. It occurred to me that this was pretty definitely a case of taking things too seriously.

Aha.

Taking oneself too seriously is discouraged in the official rules. There are all sorts of weird arbitrary things people do to pad wordcount -- and those are approved. The founder of NaNoWriMo explains in the history section that he produced most of the regulations on the theory (well, he calls it knowledge) that unbending rules and merciless deadlines were necessary to get writers moving.

So. I maintain -- and I refuse to care if any of the staff or anyone in the Rules Forum or Chris Baty himself disagrees, and I'm not going to ask them either -- that if these unbending rules are getting in the way of writing, the correct thing to do is logically to go right up to the edge and contort. They can't bend to get more in your way, remember?

You already have some text written? As some unusually sensible person in the rules forum said last year, dub it notes or call it a previous installment -- you can edit the works together after November. You want to write with someone? Say you're writing interrelated stories out of order. Heck, you want to write a screenplay, which he explicitly says is outside the scope of NaNoWriMo? Call it a novel in an unusual format. Whatever. Just, for heaven's sake, don't ask people to tell you no.

So there.

Comments

Yes!

[murasaki99.livejournal.com]

Aye, that's it, exactly! At some point I expect this year's 50k to run into last year's. I don't care - last year's needs to be rewritten anyway, so if I call it 'notes', so what? :D

On we go!! Avaunt!

Re: Yes!

[persephone-kore.livejournal.com]

It's just really elaborate notes!

I actually have an idea that I would like to write and if I've ever written anything on it before, it doesn't count because I can't find it. (Hey, I think that's a good reason.) But the idea that this was required was killing my enthusiasm.

Then I thought about the padding techniques various people had recommended and... realized something. *eg* Which is now up in another post.

[icantfollow.livejournal.com]

The only "rule" I'm following on purpose is that it's got to be 50K in a month. Otherwise, I'm not really going to be a stickler for the "rules". Who the heck is going to care if I break them? :)

[persephone-kore.livejournal.com]

Cybele, I think. And I suppose I can see why some people would regard sticking to the letter of the rules as a necessity to make it really work as a challenge.

On the other hand, once my sense of humor returned, I had an epiphany about the implications of the padding techniques and what they permit you to do while sticking, as far as I can tell, to the letter of the rules. *snicker*

[charmisjess.livejournal.com]

Silly NaNo. *rolls eyes* What are they going to do if you do break the rules? *scoff* Kick you out of writing? English is closed, Pekays, sorry. ;)

[persephone-kore.livejournal.com]

Woe. Oh, woe.

*peers woefully out of Willy Wonka's mouth*

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

I thoroughly approve of this condition. *thumbs up*

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

*conclusion. CONCLUSION. *hits keyboard with head a couple times*

[persephone-kore.livejournal.com]

It was at some point after writing this entry that I finally realized the implications of the padding technique where your character goes off telling some tangential story... *whistles*

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

Hahah, oh jeeze, that's hilarious. :D You have an awesome attitude.

[persephone-kore.livejournal.com]

Well, this is in recovery from being a total melodramatic grump. ;)

[persephone-kore.livejournal.com]

Also, thank you! :D

[layrenelement.livejournal.com]

I totally agree, I think all their silly rules are a little bit well.. silly. Especially the rules against collabing, I do my best work that way. And I think there's nothing wrong with using October as novel writing month instead of november :p but don't tell them that! Shhh. I didn't do that but if I'd had to have surgery this month on my sinuses, like I was thinking, I would've.

[persephone-kore.livejournal.com]

The first NaNoWriMo was, apparently, in July. ;)

[pollymel.livejournal.com]

Oh my, that would be so much better. I have yet to do NaNo because November sucks the big suck timewise. Heh. Maybe I'll have a personal NaNo in July next year.

[persephone-kore.livejournal.com]

last year I aimed for 75000 and got 72K or something like that

*whistles*

I think my ambivalence about NaNoWriMo leading up to it this year is probably not really helping my enthusiasm for my story, but then I think about the fact that I procrastinated horribly last year, and I was really fond of that story.

I found it helpful to try the tip about checking your position in the overall list sorted by wordcount and trying to advance. Although at the moment I'm still back in the region where the gap between positions is one word....