nano, part deux

[tinpra]

So it's later...early afternoon to be exact, and I've finished my word count for today. Ugh! I am so sick of this thing. Talk about piece of stinking crap. Maybe I wouldn't feel so bad if I didn't know this was going to be part of my larger novel. It's so bad! So incredibly bad. I almost gave up last night b/c I couldn't see why I was still doing this. I know in the Neil Gaimen pep talk he said his agent said all writers get to this point, but, y'know, they've got an agent. I've just got my ego. And my ego? She is hiding herself from the stinking pile of poo that is this novel. Why the heaven would anyone read this thing? It's only barely a vampire novel. Oy. Ugh and oy. i still plan on breaking through 40k by tomorrow, and 45k by the weekend.

Anyway, I have a rant about a stem cell article I saw on MSN a couple of days ago, but I don't think I have the strength to really get into in the well thought out manner it deserves. I mean if I end up getting reamed for my views, I'd like to have a good foundation to back myself up with. Minor detail, I know.

Was also gonna work on that alt!Kitty bio of doom that I was ranting about a few weeks ago. So not. I've actually closed Word for the first time in weeks. I can't be so bothered with the program right now. All I can deal with is email, fic, and spider solitaire.

Comments

why even bad writing is worthwhile

[orsinosmistress.livejournal.com]

Hello, my most industrious and beloved height twin!

I completely understand (and have been there... am there... will be there forever, probably) where you're coming from about the, "Who cares if I write a lot, if it's all POO?!" thing. I am currently justifying my total failure at NaNo with this very argument: "If I write any more today, it'll be even worse than what I've already written."

I understand intellectually and sometimes even believe what the NaNo people say about how the point is to ignore your internal editor and see what marvelous creativity you can tap into thereby.

But I think the "real" argument for writing the wordcount, even when the words suck (*if* they do, and *if* you can make that observation at this point in the game), is this: It is possible to take utter crap and make something incredible from it. I wouldn't have believed this if I hadn't seen the late James Dickey do it in a verse composition class I took with him (at which I totally sucked, btw). He's the guy who wrote Deliverance. He considered himself a poet first and foremost, though, so you should read his poetry before you form an opinion of him. Anyway, he could take some utter drivel one us had churned out for our assignment, and where it was long enough, he could cut out 90% of the work, re-arrange two or three things, add a half dozen words of his own, and suddenly the thing *worked*. It was astonishing. I never knew before then that it was possible, and nothing else that he did convinced me so much of his talent. The man may have been a flawed human being, but he had an amazing gift with language.

I'm not sure yet how this applies to the novel, since I've never generated enough words, but I'm willing to believe that you can do something with the raw material.

I'm not convinced this is the best or most efficient way to work, but I do believe that even bad writing has something to contribute to the end result. So today's lesson is: Do not despair.

Or your height twin will have to amuse you out of the doldrums.

Do you know how proud I am of you?? Jealous, too, natch! And insanely thrilled for you. Plus, I totally promise to help you with the editing, whenever and however you want. You're almost there!

< /Pep Talk>