Is NaNoWriMo Important to you?
I have written three unsalable novels, two unsalable screenplays and one unsalable non-fiction book (Web development). I don't know how to write well, but I know how to write a lot.
Every year I angst for about 30 seconds that I am not diving into the NaNoWriMo. Maxwell Grant (one of my writing heroes) used to lap the NaNoWriMo by turning out two 60,000 word Shadow novels every month.
If you were an aspiring writer, what is more important to you? Accomplishing the goal of NaNoWriMo and completing a novel; or seeing what your friends are doing on Friday night via Facebook and Twitter. Facebook is worse than murder. The 500 million users expending a median of 10 minutes per day expend 126 lifetimes of time each day. If a car model used up 46,000 lives per year the CEO for that car company would be up on criminal charges.
To turn out 60,000 words, you need 60,000 "keeper" words-- words after typos and rethinks. When I write, I type at about 80 words per minute of which I end up with 20 "keeper" words per minute (WPM). Let's say I'm too fast which is why my writing sucks, so someone should be able to turn out 10 WPM.
To turn out a novel, you would have to write for 6,000 minutes or 100 hours. If you only use Facebook and Twitter a little then you can't mine those time sucks for found time. But what if you used those two sites for three hours a day? Would you give up Facebook and Twitter for a month and, in exchange, spend the time producing your Great [Country] Novel? Or, would you rather kibitz about what Jimmy and Ashley are doing on Friday night?
Every year I angst for about 30 seconds that I am not diving into the NaNoWriMo. Maxwell Grant (one of my writing heroes) used to lap the NaNoWriMo by turning out two 60,000 word Shadow novels every month.
If you were an aspiring writer, what is more important to you? Accomplishing the goal of NaNoWriMo and completing a novel; or seeing what your friends are doing on Friday night via Facebook and Twitter. Facebook is worse than murder. The 500 million users expending a median of 10 minutes per day expend 126 lifetimes of time each day. If a car model used up 46,000 lives per year the CEO for that car company would be up on criminal charges.
To turn out 60,000 words, you need 60,000 "keeper" words-- words after typos and rethinks. When I write, I type at about 80 words per minute of which I end up with 20 "keeper" words per minute (WPM). Let's say I'm too fast which is why my writing sucks, so someone should be able to turn out 10 WPM.
To turn out a novel, you would have to write for 6,000 minutes or 100 hours. If you only use Facebook and Twitter a little then you can't mine those time sucks for found time. But what if you used those two sites for three hours a day? Would you give up Facebook and Twitter for a month and, in exchange, spend the time producing your Great [Country] Novel? Or, would you rather kibitz about what Jimmy and Ashley are doing on Friday night?
Comments