How to Art Your Art (What I learned from Nanowrimo)

Today, let us discuss Nanowrimo.

Nanowrimo is National Novel Writing Month.

It is a bear and a half of a thing.

This year, I successfully won.

Yay!!!

How do you win Nanowrimo?

Simple: Write 50,000 words in 30 days.

That is it, or to put it another way: Write 1,667 words a day.

We figured that out, it is approximately three pages, five double spaced. A day.

That isn't all that much.

But, it adds up.

I will talk about that in just a moment.

People will scream and yell and tell me five pages is too much.

"Writing five pages is like, really hard"

-Someone, somewhere

Tough.
You figure it out.
That is rule number one.

1. Figure it out

That is the first thing I discovered.
You fall behind? Figure it out.
You need to make up pages? Figure it out.
You don't know where the story goes next? Figure it out.

Nothing breaks writer's block like breaking it like a twig.

Like a fucking twig!

(That is what it looks like when you bitch and moan about the artistic process by the way)

Rule number two.

2. There are no rules

You can do whatever you want!

That is the beauty about fiction, about writing, about art.

It is your story.
Whatever it looks like, however it looks, that is entirely up to you.

And no one, not no one can tell you otherwise...Mark Z Danielewski!

For those unfamiliar with author Danielewski's prose, allow me to enlighten you:

He wrote this: House of Leaves.

Now, you may be thinking: that doesn't look so bad.

"Oh God! Oh sweet Jesus! Why? WHY would he do this?!"

-His publishers

That is all formatting.
It is probably a nightmare.
But, I have read the 496 page behemoth and I have to say...it is necessary to read the book like that.
It is absolutely necessary for it to be spaced like that.
Why?
Because it is his story and that was important to him (for whatever reason) to have you read it backwards and forwards and include creepy ciphers in the footnotes.
This is what Ship of Theseus wants to be when it grows a pair of balls.
Apologies to Mr. JJ Abrams

 

Sorry.

Moving right along.

Rule number three:

3. Stop reading, start writing.

I don't think I have ever read less than during writing month with Nanowrimo.

It was the strangest thing, but I noticed something extraordinary.

Whenever I didn't want to write, whenever I was scared or worried that I wasn't good enough: 

I would go straight for the Netflix. 

I would start reading a novel.

I would play the video games.

I would surf the interwebs.

I was astounded at how much time I could not do what I needed to do, which was fucking write.

I love writing, but I also hate it so much.

Much like my theatre, my acting, any job where I create a story, I am afraid of it and find everything else to do instead of what I (really) want to do.

So here is the fourth rule, which is really an addendum to the third, or supersedes the third, figure it out:

3/4. There is always fear. Refer to rule 1.

You will always be afraid.

There is no reason not to be.

It is really scary to put your own work out in the universe.

It is really easy to criticize (not critique) (ooh! subject of a new post).

It is really hard to produce work.

Not even necessarily good work.

Has anyone read Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time?

If not, please don't.

If you have, please reverse time.

The man could not write.

There, I said it.

But, man could he produce like anything.

He wrote books twice as long as George RR Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire and he churned that out for nearly a dozen novels before he bit the big one.

The series was finished in half the time by a wonderfully prolific author by the name of Brandon Sanderson, which we will get to in another post.

The point is: If he can do it, anybody can.

And that is literally true.

If anyone who is anyone sat down and started churning out that much copy, publishers can and would pick them up.

The problem is, we are afraid to do exactly that.

And that is a tragedy.

Because that means there are so many stories that never get seen.

Never get written.

Never get heard.

We should do something about that.

Which is why Nanowrimo is frigging amazing.

50,000 words.

It is the length of The Great Gatsby.

It isn't that long.

And that means that almost anyone can do it.

If nothing else, it gives you an excuse to be sociable.

To produce.

To make a thing.

Because I will tell you this.

If you look on my stats for Nanowrimo, which is publicly available, you will notice something:

I have participated for exactly one year.

I have won exactly one times.

But, I heard about Nanowrimo freshman year of undergrad.

I thought it was a great idea then.

I thought it was worthwhile then.

What happened?

Rule number three.  There was fear.

I let fear get in the way.

I didn't write a single word for over seven years.

And I got angry.

At myself.

At other writers.

At other people getting good at what I was sure I would be great at.

But, here is the crazy thing.

I finally sat down at the computer to type out my big, great, fantasy series and what came out was another story altogether.

I thought I had only one story in my lifetime.

I wanted to write like Tolkien, cranking out one mammoth, beautiful manuscript.

Maybe, I will, but now I know I can make other things.

And that is so relieving for me.

Because I was afraid.

And now, I am not.

I am still afraid, but for new and different reasons.

Rule number three. There is always fear.

But, don't let that stop you.

Write a book.

Make a painting.

Figure it out.

Because you can.

You can absolutely do it.

And when you do, please share it with me.

I'll post it here to start:

I have written a first draft of a novel.

If anyone is interested in seeing/reviewing it, comments, edits are appreciated, then I will share my file with you.

I would be really honored if others wanted to join in.