Thursday, October 16, 2008

the grace of deadlines (or: have i finally lost it?)

What a writer needs is handicaps. —James Thurber

Writing books is, and should be, really slow. The great books are still around—just like the great recipes, the great songs, the great trees—because they took a long time to develop. —Heather Sellers

I’ve been thinking a lot about my writing pace these days. Overthinking it, perhaps. Probably. Okay, certainly.

No surprise to you, but I’ve been worrying too much about how long writing takes. I keep wondering if I’m working hard enough. It’s like that classic running analogy: how a person can run well on her own, but if she’s surrounded by other runners, she pushes herself even faster.

I’ve been working solo for a while, and I miss the camaraderie of a writing class, the deadlines our professors would give. I know this isn’t the time for a critique group, or for a writing class, or an MFA. But I wanted something to shove me along…

A few weeks ago, someone asked me if I was doing NaNoWriMo this year. “No, definitely not,” I said. “My writing’s just going in a different direction right now—I need to take it slow, focus on the words, that sort of thing.”

Two nights ago, though, I started thinking about NaNoWriMo again. And I wonder now if the timing is actually perfect.

I’ve just started work on Part Three, as you know. I’m breaking apart the plot, cracking open the characters, twisting the conflicts, amping up the tension. All that good stuff. And I had thought that I would complete my outline for the section by November 17, and begin my rewrites then. And hopefully be done rewriting the entire section by the end of January. (Allowing for the usual holiday madness.)

But as I blinked up at the ceiling two nights ago, lying wide awake and panicky in bed, I realized: I don’t have to take until the end of January writing this. I could finish my outline by the end of October, and blitz the rewriting in one mad month… which sounds an awful lot like NaNoWriMo.

So yesterday, I signed up. 50,000 words in 30 days.

I am so excited! This was absolutely the right thing to do. Two years ago, when I did NaNoWriMo, I was gone for nearly half the month, so my writing sessions were very hardcore, very urgent. This year, I’m not planning on traveling at all, so I can ease up the pace a little.

And I’m less concerned about “winning” it this year. 50,000 words was my entire novel in 2006, and now it’s (gulp) just a fourth of it. Part Two expanded to fill 55,000 words, and I think I have more material for Part Three, so I may still get through all 50K. But if I come to the end of my outline and I haven’t technically finished my word quota, that’s okay with me. I’m doing it more for the encouragement, the forums, the gorgeous little graph that tallies my words…

I’m doing it for the pack of runners, all of us jostling and gasping and sweating together, sharing tips about how to push harder, work better, think more brilliantly.

I really can’t say it loud enough: I’m so psyched for this. It’s the perfect solution to my “I’m taking an eternity!” blues. I hope I’m not rushing it (see the Heather Sellers quote above): I hope I’m not setting myself up for something disastrous. But just now, I really don’t care. I can spend December pulling the words apart and untangling the paragraphs, so long as I get the second draft of part three done in November.

So for now, I just have to race and get my outline done…—jl

Are you doing NaNoWriMo too? Let me know and we can be buddies…

Posted by Jenn Langefeld on 10/16 at 05:20 PM
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