Sunday, November 15, 2009

Five-Minute Blog: The Novel

As you might remember, I am participating in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), trying to write a 50,000-word novel between Nov. 1 and Nov. 30. I'm writing a crime novel...well, a novel in which a "crime" takes place and then lots of people spend an entire book trying to cover it up. :) I don't read this kind of novel, so I'm not sure how I ended up writing one.

Normally, I start out with a character I want to write about (too often a thinly-veiled version of my ideal self), start writing, and fail about 10-15 pages in. It turns out that starting with a plot, or at least an incident, works out better for me...at least this time.

I've never been much of a fiction writer. I write autobiographical essays, scholarly essays (that are AWFUL, but that's another story) and poetry. I used to write songs. Writing fiction is not easy for me at all. That's why I'm writing this blog right now...putting off going over to the novel file because I don't know what my people are going to do next and fear that I'll get over there and freeze. But you can't fear that, I know. Especially with NaNoWriMo, the goal is words, not literature..."quantity, not quality" as the motto goes.

It's really fun writing this thing, though...writing badly with no consequences, seeing the words pile up, the characters start to be recognizable, the story to move along. And it's not easy. I have new respect for novel writers...not that I didn't respect them before. But sometimes I read a book and think, "How in the world did this get published? This is SO bad! Why did you end it like THAT?!" or things along those lines. Now I know: That the writer finished at all and tied up loose ends at ALL is a miracle.

Now, let's see if I can create one myself...

1 comment:

  1. I know this blog has grammar problems. I don't remember how to edit, so I'm not going to fix them. I just wanted to let you realize I know they are there.

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