NaNoWriMo 2023 Progress Report
Ooooh! Four in the morning, my brain is full of writerly thoughts, I check the time on my iPad before getting up to drink coffee and write stuff and a new episode of Going Prose has dropped!
So much for work. I hit the Play button.
Now on its third episode, the two hosts are not only still talking to each other as NaNoWriMo grinds inexorably on, leaving a trail of exhaustion and despair in its wake - and I use that four-letter word advisedly — but they seem to be enjoying the process.
As am I. CZ Tacks spends half an hour poking Addie Ellicott in the ribs and watching her giggle and along the way they talk about writing, plotting a novel, offering advice, and just having a whale of a time.
We all have this image of a writer lonesomely pounding out words in a lakeside cabin while a neglected hound looks on with mournful eyes and another pot of joe steams on the wood stove but the reality is that writers do best when there’s a #WritingCommunity involved.
Throwing ideas around, stirring the pot full of creative juices, cheering each other on, promising to read each other’s manuscripts, it’s all good.
This is not entertainment, this is research into the craft, okay?
Besides, these two have a way with words and I do love listening to the synergy sparkle.
On the serious side, this is lifting the lid off the writing process and watching the wheels spin around. Randomly and jerkily and making grinding noises, it seems, but somehow the words flow and they can be brushed up later to cover the rough spots.
I was there when the comment was made about NaNoWriMo not being about reaching fifty thousand words. I watched Tacks’ reaction and she just lit up.
“That’s the whole fucken point,” she replied — with a smile — and I totally agree.
NaNoWriMo is about sheering off any procrastination, any editing, any deleting for the sake of quality. It’s about getting those words out, silencing the inner self-critic, trusting the subconscious to solve any problems.
Let the word count flow! Maybe the output is mostly nonsense but it is pure creation and that in itself is a thing of beauty.
The words don’t matter. The interesting thing is the imagination whirling around, trying things out, letting the thoughts run through the maze and seeing where they go.
One of my favourite movie scenes about writing consists of just ten words. But they carry, in context, a cargo of immense drama.
Write fifty thousand words and there are going to be some gems in there. Maybe not the words themselves but the thoughts behind the words.
Whatever Inkling Imps live in the mind, they have some bloody good ideas. Listen to them.
And listen to these two. Any random five minutes will have a dozen great ideas for surviving the month and keeping the mind at work while genius plays.
— Skyring
