(no subject)

[amarra-jade.livejournal.com]

What do you do when your writing kills your enthusiasm for your story? As far as I can tell, my options are:

1. Push myself to 50K with my current plot. This is what I did the past two years, but I was miserable the entire time and didn't feel like much of a winner.

2. Put my current plot aside for now and write something strictly for the lolz so I can enjoy myself and I won't feel like I have to write well. Seems like a good idea, but I'm not particularly good at writing humor.

3. Keep working on my current plot at my own pace. Again, seems like a good idea, except that my normal pace is incredibly slow, so I might never get it finished.

4. Quit NaNo. I really don't want to do this. I hate giving up, and I get more writing done during NaNo than any other month of the year.

Yeah, I know I'm probably being way too pessimistic about this, but I'd appreciate some advice. Thanks in advance.

Comments

[puddles21.livejournal.com]

I treat nano like a big stream of conciousness writing project. What I produce at the end won't even be a draft but a framework for my story. My writing is 50% waffle with Nano and I will probably never use anything I write this month.

BUT I still love nano and you should too. Beacuse Nano teaches you about writing. You need the discipline of writing every day and the training to force yourself to be creative even if you don't really feel like it today.

My number one piece of advice for Nano is think about what you are learning. Just the fact that you don't like what you are writing is a sign that you have learnt something about you and the way you write. The only way to learn to write is by writing. This Nano my goal is to teach myself the thinks I like and dislike about writing, my good and bad habits while writing. That will be infinately more valuable to me as a writer than 50,000 words.

There is a reason NaNo has the no edit rule, because it is hard to see what your mistakes are when you are so close to them. Write what works for you, if you think it's awful make a note. I have a notation system so I can come back to the bits I thought were awful and the bits I thought were great in December, I am always suprised how my opinion changes. Of course there are parts that are still awful and I learn valuable lessons, such as my creativity dives after midnight and I don't write dialogue well.

[notemily.livejournal.com]

I'm glad to see I'm not the only one writing this way! I'm a first-time Nanoer and I definitely don't have a story yet, but I sure do have some words.