A Writer Against NaNoWriMo

[browngirl]

So, Alma A. Hromic, a writer, has written an article condemning NaNoWriMo and its participants, which can be read here: http://www.swans.com/library/art8/aah032.html

I have to admit, I was a bit worried about reactions like this one, because I have friends who write for a living, friends who have written for years and years, and I worried about seeming to trivialize their vocation and livelihood. What do people think of her take on NaNoWriMo, not least you, my friends on LJ who are writers?

Comments

[patgreene.livejournal.com]

My church has a music school for children and adults. I was talking to the rector one day about it, and he talked about how music had become something people consumed (i.e., listened to) instead of performed, and that there was this prevailing social opinion that unless you could sing (or play) at least at a semi-professional level you should just not bother. Part of the reason for the music school, he said, was to allow people to reclaim performing music as a source of joy to themselves.

I think NaNoWriMo has the possiblity of doing the same for writing -- for allowing us to experience writing again the same way maybe we did when we were growing up and didn't worry about being "good enough".

My twelve year old is currently writing a "novel" (I haven't told him about NaNoWriMo because he would get so involved in it he would neglect his schoolwork.) He has a few thousand words written. Is it at all good? No. Is it really a novel? No. Am I delighted he's doing it? Yes, because I think the practice writing is good for him -- it allows him to develop a voice. And here and there I see glimpses of a his take on the world. (My favorite sentence so far: "The boys went to the movie not because it was good but because it was bad -- there is nothing quite so satisfying in its own way as sitting and staring at a screen and saying "This sucks" every few minutes for two hours.") When he gets older he can take writing classes -- right now I just want him to feel free to experiment, the same way that kids play with crayons and fingerpaint before they learn to produce "art".

Is what my son doing demeaning to "professional novelists"? Like hell. And neither is NaNoWriMo.

[thespian.livejournal.com]

you know, your 'favourite sentence' (which is a delight), sounds like it's straight out of a Nick Hornby novel (which is a good and promising thing).

Good luck to him.