I didn’t write at all this week. Strangely I feel no remorse. But I don’t have the kind of disdain for NaNoWriMo that I did when I stumbled last year. Actually if anything I am beginning to see the merits of NaNoWriMo. The encouragement to get out of the habit of thinking or talking about writing and get into the practice of writing. The practice of turning off self-censorship, learning to not critique your work too early. Simply learning by doing, and learning by your mistakes.

Towards the end of October I decided to write whatever popped into my head for a couple of hours each day. It was mostly just to see how long it would take to reach two thousand words each day. I stumbled my way through this mysterious tale. It was genuinely quite horrible but I didn’t care because it wasn’t about the quality it was about the quantity. But it is interesting the distinctions you make even in the course of doing something badly. I knew what I had done badly and I knew how I would change it if I were to rewrite the story.

I’ve made a lot of distinctions within my NaNoWriMo project too. I’ve found myself asking questions about things that had never occurred to me until earlier this month. At different points during the narrative I found myself asking, “What is the reader’s interest in this passage? Why should they care? What is their emotional investment in this?” I really thought about the dramatic arc of this work for the first time (and concluded that some research would be helpful). I ran into some point of view issues as online video – of all things – became a character in its own right.

I haven’t really reached the word count I aspired to, but I’m not overly disappointed. I humbly acknowledge that memoir is perhaps not the best vechicle for NaNoWriMo. In the context of a novel, especially the first draft of a novel, you really can plow through. I feel that for a memoir I have a certain responsibility as the author to represent myself and others accurately. I can’t really go, “Oh, I don’t remember what happened there – let’s make it up.” Infact in many ways I felt much less a writer as a curator of my own memories and personal history. And actually that was primarily what this process was about. It was exploratory in nature. It was about getting a sense of the lay of the land.

I’m going to keep writing. I’m going to keep grinding away at this ‘thing’ and see where I end up.

Related Posts:

• NaNoWriMo 2009: Week 1
• NaNoWriMo 2009: Motivations

Sunday 1 November
Wordcount: 2047
After re-readng Julia Cameron’s thoughts on finishing things…

The moment we finish something, we get a sort of celestial pat – sometimes even a shove – a small boster rocket of energy to be applied elsewhere.

… I decided to start the day by finishing some small tasks. I made my bed, new sheets for a new month and new beginnings, washed some dishes and did some cleaning up. I had a shower, and then I started writing. I couldn’t believe how easily the words flew onto the page, how many memories came flooding back in that moment. I did a test run for a few days in October and decided I could write two thousand words in two hours. Today, however, I did it in one! Huzzah!

Monday 2 November
Wordcount: 4067 (+2020 on previous day)
The words came less fluidly. I was reluctant to show up and write. Certainly less uninspired than yesterday. I have a lot of video to review that relates to this project and while this is infinitely useful and helpful, it can also mean writing takes much longer if you get distracted by going too far down the path of memory lane. I’m resisting the urge to write more than approximately two thousand words a day. This is all about consistency. If I leave the page wanting to write more hopefully that enthusiasm will translate into good things for tomorrow’s effort.

Tuesday 3 November
Wordcount: 4717 (+650 on previous day)
A completely horrible day on all fronts. [Somebody said something that was intended as encouragement but actually had the opposite effect altogether. They hoped that I could sustain the project for the 50,000 words. The only thing is up until they said that I never doubted I could. I genuinely thought I'd get to the 50,000 words with ease and still not be at the end of the project. This doubt really took hold in my mind, I didn't reach my daily wordcount and everything went downhill from there.]

Wednesday 4 November
Wordcount: 4717 (No increase on previous day)
It was hard to imagine a worse day than yesterday… but here we are. Actually I did a lot of things, even writing, on this day. It was quite a productive day. I just didn’t do anything on the NaNoWriMo project. (I played a lot of music. I recorded a song – and it relates, um, thematically, at least, to the NaNoWriMo project.) I figure tomorrow really can’t be worse than today. Like, it just isn’t possible. You can’t write less than nothing. (Let’s keep the bar low people!)

Thursday 5 November
Wordcount: 5885 (+1168 on previous day)
I took a break from the narrative of the project itself and worked on a section that was always intended to be an appendix to the book. I wrote about writing the song that I mentioned earlier. It was a very emotional process, but it yielded a breakthrough more than a breakdown. I shared some background on the story with a friend via email and this reaffirmed to myself that this was a story worth telling. Mostly I am just happy to be writing again.

Friday 6 November
Wordcount: 6368 (+483 on previous day)
I wrote a little bit in the morning and then spent the rest of the day staring at the screen. I wish I could say this wasn’t true…

Saturday 7 November
Wordcount: 6368 (No increase on previous day)
After the cabin fever of Friday I knew I needed to get out of the house, so I did. I spent some time in a local park and was impressed at how much more clearly I thought in that place. There was no writing on this day, but when I got home I started cleaning up madly. Decluttering for creativity or merely procrastination? I guess time will tell.

Sunday 8 November
Wordcount: 7356 (+988 on previous day)
Things are slowly taking shape. Very slowly. Infact I have a feeling that by the end of the month I’ll have written 30,000 words. Sure it won’t be the 50,000 NaNoWriMo hopes to inspire, but it still isn’t too bad. It’s certainly more than anything else I’ve written. (Indeed the current 7356 words is the longest continuous non-Academic piece I’ve ever written, so that is something to be thankful for too.)

Related Posts:

• NaNoWriMo 2009: Motivations
• NaNoWriMo 2009: Week 2
• Free Kindle Books: Writing and Publishing
• Art Was Always My Consolation
• Doubt, My Old Friend

So NaNoWriMo, the National Novel Writing Month, is almost upon us. I have decided to participate in 2009 and I just wanted to take this opportunity to talk about my motivations, previous experience and what I hope to get out of this process.

For me NaNoWriMo 2009 is mostly about cultivating creative habits, about getting into the habit of writing every single day no matter what. It doesn’t matter if I’m in the mood, if I’m inspired or not – I have made a commitment to write every single day.

But as well as that it is about proving to myself that I can write a piece of at least 50,000 words. I have never written anything this large and last year the prospect of such a large project freaked me out and rendered me completely useless.

The project I am going to tackle in November isn’t strictly a novel. It is actually a memoir, and during November my primary concern is about collecting anecedotes that relate to the subject matter of the memoir. I am not going to labour too much about narrative structure, timelines, flashbacks. The goal here is to get the raw information onto the page so that I have something to work with in subsequent revisions.

You can follow my progress on the NaNoWriMo website.
You can subscribe to this blog via RSS for updates.
You can follow me (@johnlacey) on Twitter.

Are you doing NaNoWriMo in 2009? Is this your first time or are you a seasoned professional? Why are you doing NaNoWriMo? What do you hope to get out of this process?

Leave me a comment – I’d love to hear from you!

Related Posts:

• NaNoWriMo 2009: Week 1
• Classroom Community Of Writers
• All I Want For Christmas
• NaNoWriMo 2009: Week 2
• Wayson Choy: Your Story Is Absolutely Worth Telling