browngirl: (Minoan Lady)
[personal profile] browngirl
This is for everyone doing National Novel Writing Month. I've done NaNoWriMo in the past and may again in the future; I loved it.

I've also been dismayed when people inevitably try to dissuade people from participating in it, saying that one can do "better" things, such as Ms. Miller on Salon, who somehow assumes that NaNo participants aren't also reading and suggests that people should read 10 novels in November instead of writing one.

It boggles my mind that anyone who writes could manage not to understand that writing and reading satisfy different urges for many people, but, well, I try not to make a hobby of ordering people to cease participating in an activity that pleases them and harms no one. So.

If you're doing NaNoWriMo this year, I advise you to ignore the people telling you not to, maybe read this instead and above all else write if you want to. Writing, like all creativity, feeds the soul; the people trying to dissuade you from it are trying to starve you, and you deserve to be nourished. (Yes, that's a cheesy metaphor, but I earnestly mean it.)

Date: 2010-11-04 08:34 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] elmathelas.livejournal.com
When I'm writing for nanowrimo, since I'm writing to a deadline and with purpose as opposed to waiting for a flight of fancy to just take me and wing me headlong into a fully formed fic (which does happen, but oh so rarely) I feel like I'm constantly writing against a strong tide of thoughts of THIS SUCKS I SUCK THIS SUCKS OMG THIS SUCKS but I keep going, and I think that, more than anything else, is worth the experience. If I can get over being my own worst enemy, even if just for a month, that's an accomplishment that no amount of nay-saying can take away from me.


Ha Ha! I say. Realize that.

Date: 2010-11-04 09:40 pm (UTC)
jane_potter: (Gaila)
From: [personal profile] jane_potter
PREACH. *fistbumps*

Date: 2010-11-05 07:33 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] re-white.livejournal.com
Beautiful icon.

Date: 2010-11-05 01:12 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] rubynye.livejournal.com
*nod* I also have to crawl over huge mental boulders of "I'm wasting time / so and so whom I respect doesn't like this kind of story/I should wash the dishes instead / I SUCK I SUCK I SUCK" every time I write. Poisonous "advice" like the Salon piece is one more boulder; sensible encouragement like the LA Times piece is a lever to wedge the boulders back out of the way.

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