What I'm not doing for NaNoWriMo this year
and few updates
The NaNoWriMo (or Nano) is a period of collective madness where writers are called to complete a 50k novel in one month.
Of course I only know of this madness because I was an active participant for several years.
NaNo is a great tool novice writers.
The endgoal of 50k is meant to keep you on a 1600 words daily diet, which is easy to reach when you start out with a fresh, exciting new idea (all shiny in your hands) but can be quite challenging once you get in the thick of it. Contrast and compare with the dreaded middle and the fact that most writers can’t plan ahead to the finale.
Completing NaNo is great, especially your novel is actually close around 50k and you get to write the word “end”. You get bragging rights and the materials that your mind (ehm, I meant the Muse) can spew out under constant exercise can be surprising.
However, after a while you kind of grow out of it.
something something, writing everyday
It’s not that I have to do it. I can likely satisfy my brain’s needs for creativity somewhere else - which is the equivalent of tricking the muse into new hobbies1.
The point is not setting an habit. With a day job and other real-life obligations, writing everyday is quite a high bar that I lowered somewhat “work on my writing everyday”2.
The point here is that without a constant, daily effort, I would get nowhere. My Muse spurns out creative ideas faster than I can complete them, and even now she’s in the corner tapping a foot.
This is the major issue I have with NaNo. It gets great communities of writers together for one month… which says nothing on what they should be doing the rest of the year.
So, here’s what I am going to not do:
I won’t be starting any new projects. Not even that extremely tempting magical realism/horror sequel.
I won’t let myself off the hook. Not that I could, but I will likely have some free time that I could employ (sigh) berating myself with writing.
I won’t stress over word count. The 1600 words watermark is kind of high for me, on a regular working day, especially if I have some editing or short-story reading to do.
I won’t delve headfirst without any planning whatsoever.
What I will do instead:
Keep working on the editing of my two novels, UGPOP and Cicada;
I will publish two projects in November - Consultancy Blues and Gavan al cuore del deserto giunse. The first is a short story collection, the second a tarot-generated epic fantasy which will be available for free (in Italian; an English translation is in scope).
I will pick up Neon City back again. The project - sometimes referred as its other working titles, like All Neon Gods Dance or Neon Gods Dance, - has never really left my mind. But it needs to be put on the forefront again sometimes in the near future.
Building on that last point. I may already have something like 44k of work done for Neon City, much of which will need heavy revision. On the same page, I don’t think I want to close the project. I don’t plan to reach a point where I will be “done” with it. The portal to Neon City will probably be open in my mind all through 2024.
What’s important right now is to build a good, coherent sendoff for some of its characters.
Fruitful November to y’all.
I should have never been allowed to use Minecraft.
Recently this amounts to a lot of translation work, editing, reviewing, design, and planning for my next releases.
Stop waste time and write, wrimo!