Thread: So, I bailed on it

I was sitting there a few days ago, writing my novel, just bleakly forcing myself to type out words in a crappy, rushed story, and I reflected on the motto of NaNoWriMo:

"Quantity over quality."

And I suddenly realised "...What?! That's a terrible motto! It goes against everything that any good writer should believe in! It's the kind of thinking that gives rise to soap operas and fast food! What am I doing?"

Maybe I just picked the wrong kind of novel to write (a very complicated techno-thriller). Maybe I just don't like writing under pressure. But suddenly the whole idea seems really stupid to me. There are enough awful novels in the world without us hastily adding to the pile.

I see where you are coming from, but a good novel can be rushed. I found that the reason my nano is crappy is 1) poor planning and 2) goofy subject. I did not go into Nano expecting a good piece of work...I went into it just to get myself writing again.

Quantity over Quality is not a good motto, but sometimes you have to let the water run for a minute before getting to the nice cold stuff...

Even though my nano is crap...and very far behind... I am trying to finish it. Just so I have an accomplishment. This has got me going again and now writing is like a drug.. I think about it all the time and when I am not doing it I am craving it.

You can spend the next fifty years writing the perfect novel. Or you can write a really crappy one this month.

Take your pick. My nano is utter crap - but, then again, so is the first draft of everything. The second will be much better.

Originally Posted by wmd

I see where you are coming from, but a good novel can be rushed.

Could you explain a little what you mean here? I disagree with this statement in a general sense, but on the other hand I think there might be some amount of truth to it. I was just wondering where you were coming from.

He's saying that quality is not neccessarily a product of production time. Certainly, taking your time is more likely to produce quality work, but you don't have to take your time. If I hadn't rushed through this story for nanowrimo, I wouldn't have written any of it at all, and I wouldn't be so prepared to bash out a quality second draft over the next few months.

Quantity over quality...

This, methinks, is just a way of saying, "Write, damn you! It's the first draft of something, so it's going to suck anyway! But if you don't write, nothing gets written!"

If I can write 50,000 crappy words in a month, how unreasonable is it to think that I can write 50,000 good words in two months, three months, etc. If nothing else, it's encouraging.

~ Ryan

I suppose. I'm just a perfectionist, and I don't really do drafts; I just write slowly and carefully the first time. So I was getting irritated that my novel sucked.

I'd wager that if you wrote a crappy first draft, your slow and careful second draft would be an order of magnitude better than what you're writing now.

Originally Posted by safari invasion

Could you explain a little what you mean here? I disagree with this statement in a general sense, but on the other hand I think there might be some amount of truth to it. I was just wondering where you were coming from.

Omnisu kind of answered this one for me.

Just because you rush through something does not mean that it will be of less quality if you take your time. I think that in a lot of aspects it is better to rush through the first draft, because getting it down on paper is the hardest part. Once you have the first draft written you can polish it up and make it better.

Originally Posted by GradysGhost

Quantity over quality...

This, methinks, is just a way of saying, "Write, damn you! It's the first draft of something, so it's going to suck anyway! But if you don't write, nothing gets written!"

If I can write 50,000 crappy words in a month, how unreasonable is it to think that I can write 50,000 good words in two months, three months, etc. If nothing else, it's encouraging.

~ Ryan

This is something I highly agree with. Nano is not a way to get people to write the next great bestseller, it is just a way to get people to write.

As far as the numbers go... it actually seems realistic that I could write the first draft of a 90K or even a 120K novel within a few months. The other day while writing my nano I busted out 3000 words in a little over an hour. I was in a zone and it felt great.

I will leave with this lesson that I have learned from doing nano this year....
I have found out, despite working a full time job and raising a 3 yr old son, and having a pregnant wife, I can still fullfill my craving to write. All I need is an hour or two a day.

I have to agree with everything WMD has said. I had a couple of 4k days myself.

Unfortunatly, I wrote 'the end' at 40k words. I only need to write 700 words a day to finish now, and that's really all I'm doing - because I've lost the forward momemtum. Now I'm doing a lot of careful plot crafting. I've pulled all the bits I liked out and I'm re-weaving the storyline. My nano contains a mostly 'complete' first draft, several scenes that only make sense in the context of a second draft, and what will be the 'final' plot summary of every single scene for when I actually start the second draft. I wrote 800 words of summary today!

Originally Posted by Scarecrow

I was sitting there a few days ago, writing my novel, just bleakly forcing myself to type out words in a crappy, rushed story, and I reflected on the motto of NaNoWriMo:

"Quantity over quality."

And I suddenly realised "...What?! That's a terrible motto! It goes against everything that any good writer should believe in! It's the kind of thinking that gives rise to soap operas and fast food! What am I doing?"

Maybe I just picked the wrong kind of novel to write (a very complicated techno-thriller). Maybe I just don't like writing under pressure. But suddenly the whole idea seems really stupid to me. There are enough awful novels in the world without us hastily adding to the pile.

Don't worry, you're not the only one.

With me it was more subconscious, I was writing, but I read back and it was mostly tripe. I am also a perfectionist (which is a bad enough mix for a writer) and producing tripe just makes me even more disappointed/annoyed. I think I too chose something too complicated (I'm taking a shot at a Legal Drama, I am not a lawyer or a law student [yet] -- not really a great idea, but I like writing it)
So I zapped from it, I got a nice start from the few days I actually tried it, it needs polishing, but it is a nice start (the dialogue is somewhat good, something that is a change for me )
Just need to take down those little tags.

I'm still planning on finishing my NaNo novel, but not in November since I still have about 49,000 words left to go. Way to procrastinate, aye.

Wow, I'd totally forgotten about NaNo WriMo this year. Now I am angry with myself. Ah well, congratulations to those who finished it, and boo to those of you who quit, and to me for forgetting.