In spite of the fact that I only started the blog a month or so ago I have been taking a break from it to help my NaNoWriMo progress. Not that there has been much of that. Most of my time has been devoted to planning and plotting. I think that's my method. I haven't written much that would appear on a page in a book, and that's disappointing (but it's been that way all year, not just in November). It's hard even yo disclose a word count when I've done so many little things all over the place. Suffice it to say, I won't have 50,000 words come November 30.
I'm behind the times in posting about this, but it turns out that several professional writers aren't big fans of NaNoWriMo. I completely understand the agents and editors that read through unending piles of slush in December not being enthused by it, but I agree with the comments of Mary Robinette Kowal and John Scalzi, who leapt to the defence of National Novel Writing Month (International if, like me, you're Australian).
Essentially, NaNoWriMo is terrific if it encourages expressions of creativity and gives would be writers the extra bit of motivation they need to cross the line from thinking about writing to doing it. Would I let someone else read a story I churned out in a month? Now way. But I would edit and build on what I produced in that time frame, and use it to propel me forward. Mary Robinette Kowal in particular revealed that her debut novel, Shades of Milk and Honey, started in this way.
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