NaNoWriMo: The Writing Diet

Since November 1, 2009, I've been unofficially participating in the NaNoWriMo Diet.

You can eat whatever you want (seriously); there are no weekly weigh ins and check-ins and there are no beefy, spray-on tanned-trainers dragging you out of bed at the crack of dawn, screaming at you to squeeze those buns. There are no pills, no laxatives, no fasting, no expensive gym membership, no counting calories, and no obsessing about drinking X amount of water a day to keep your weight balanced. You don't have to cut back on your favourite comfort food AND exercise is absolutely not required (but highly recommended for general health purposes).

Dream diet? Not exactly.

See, NaNoWriMo is not about losing—it's about adding.

50,000 words to be exact.

Since 1999, writers of all levels, of all genres, from all over the world, united in procrastination gather every November to sweat, toil, cry, lose sleep, panic (did I mention cry?) in the attempt to write a 175-page novel in 30 days.

The prize? Well, there is none.

There's no cash to be won, no publishing deal to gain, no possible meeting with a literary agent, no movie deals.

The only reward is knowing that by the end of November, you've a written a novel—albeit, a very crappy one, but a novel nonetheless.

Which is why I've decided to unofficially participate in what I call the NaNoWriMo Diet. Unofficially because I didn't register and create my avatar, which means I'm not checking in day to day with fellow NaNoWrimers or reading forums etc...I'm too busy writing to do that.

I call it a diet because it's strict, regimented, demanding. And like any diet, it's a day to day challenge, where motivation is key because at any moment, you can fall off the wagon and yo-yo back to your original weight.

So how am I doing?

Well, it's day 10 and I'm blogging instead of writing the novel so that should tell you something.

My word count is just under 10, 000 words (9393 to be clear) at 26 pages. I'm not in the red yet, but considering the word goals I set myself per week, I'm 8000 words behind.

But I'm not panicking, because NaNoWriMo is not about writing your Magnum Opus or seducing the Pulitzer committee in awarding you the grand prix for literature. It's about writing quantity, not quality. There's no time to edit, re-write, psychologically analyze your characters, or create the perfect subtext. There will be holes in the plot, and in some novels, there is no plot.

And the golden rule of creative writing? The one about showing as opposed to telling? Forget about it, at least for November.

It's about getting the first draft of that novel that's been kicking around your head for a while (in my case, three years) down and done. Because although, 50,000 words and 175 pages in one month is a test of endurance and stamina, the real work is after, when writers re-read their manuscript and realize there is so much more to be written or in some cases, so many pages that must be thrown out. The laborious process of completing the second, third, fourth, fifth draft for the next 10* years is the real test of endurance and stamina for any writer.

And since I know this, I'm cool with the pressure. I'm also cool with the reality that by the end of November, 40,000 of the 50,000 words of my “novel” will be discarded entirely or put away for another project. If I can salvage 10,000 words into something amusing, I'll be happy. After all, you can't edit a blank page, and at least I'll be 10,000 words ahead than where I was last November.

And let's face it, Vancouver in November in cold, gloomy and just pissing with rain all around. The perfect weather for NaNoWriming.

    *Ninotchka Rosca wrote Sate of War in 7 years. She wrote what she thought was the final draft within 5 years, only to realize that she had “written out” a character in the 5th chapter for no reason. She just forgot about him. Apparently Ms. Rosca had a 6-week breakdown and pulled a J.D. Salinger. She recovered from the bell jar, re-wrote the novel from chapter 5, weaving the MIA character back into the novel and completed the final, final draft 2 years later.
    Sandra Cisneros, my literary whet dream wrote her monumental and magical work, Caramelo in 10 years and poured the loss of her father entirely into the novel. The work is perfection which proves once again that good work cannot be rushed.