NaNo note to self - Part Two: THE COMMITMENT

I first took the NaNoWriMo challenge in 2010.  During my third year I took time to write a letter to myself as a way to remember some of the things I had learned in those first two years.  

I pull it out from time to time as a bit of instruction and inspiration.  I have since posted that letter here - in four installments.  (Disclaimer:  This piece is full of all kinds of silliness and fun.)  This is Part Two: THE COMMITMENT.   If you missed Part One, you can read it here.

NaNo Tips:

What Worked 

What Didn’t Work

An open letter to my current self

from my former self as a NaNo novice

by Kaye Sims

October 27, 2012

Part Two: THE COMMITMENT

If I’m going to do this thing, I’d much rather have it be some kind of success than for it to be a failure or a fizzle.  Therefore I have decided that I need to decide whether to commit to it or not.  Yes, I used the word “decide” twice in that sentence.  So sue me.  Deciding involves asking certain questions.  

Will I do this thing?

I can “give it a try” or I can decide to make it happen.  If I simply give it a try, I may or may not end up with a document.  If I consciously decide to do this thing, then I must determine what that means and what will comprise success.  Yes, this is my book; I am the author and I make the rules.

Side note:  NaNoWriMo’s rules are pretty simple.  It is all about the word count.  Between November 1 and November 30, you must compile 50,000 words.  That’s all they care about.  So yah, you have to wait until November 1 to start writing and you submit your 50,000-word document by November 30 to win.  Other than that you make the rules.

What exactly will I do?  What am I committing to?  

You will probably have more than one goal or priority with this project but you need to know which one is your highest priority.  For me, the over-riding goal is to crank out the words, to meet that word count.  Yep, yep; even if it means that I end up typing “I don’t know what to write.  What in the world shall I write about now?  Okay; I have 300 words; where in the stink can I find 1700 more?  Let’s see; I think I’ll write about such-and-such.”  Yes, I am fully aware of the silliness of such a venture. I mean... why would I want to end up with 50,000 words of useless gibberish?  But I decided to let anything go – simply because the word count was my top priority – and I have been happy to note that I rarely end up going down the total nonsense route.  Oh, yes, I have taken advantage of that self-granted freedom to write anything, but usually something has grown out of it.  It reminds me of the movie Finding Forrester when he told the kid to start typing anything, specifically instructing him to copy from Forrester’s own work.  (Remember to read these lines in Sean Connery's voice!)

Sometimes the simple rhythm of typing gets us from page one to page two.  And when you begin to feel your own words, start typing them.

Punch the keys, for God’s sake!  YES!  You’re the man now, dog.

GREAT movie, by the way!

Why do I make the word count my priority?

Confession time:  I am not a good finisher.  I start way too many things that end up fizzling or languishing in a file or a pile.  I can admit that one of the greatest things for me about NaNo is the push to get ‘er done.  The sense of accomplishment is uber-important for me, most healthy and needful for my self-esteem.  Not only that but it is great to have such a large body of work in my repertoire.  Oh, yah, I am very well aware that what I end up with may not be usable – certainly not without a lot of work.  But I still contend that a very, very rough first draft is better than no draft.  (See Anne Lamott’s chapter on shitty first drafts in bird by bird.)  Even if I can use only teeny, tiny bits and pieces of it in the future, at least I’m beginning to build my collection of writings.

But perhaps even better than the accomplishment itself is the experience – the opportunity to learn.  If my primary reasons for doing NaNo are the satisfaction of completion and the acquisition of a body of work, my secondary reason is nearly as important – and that is the practice that it gives me.  It was an invaluable opportunity to get to know myself as a writer, to become familiar with my own writing patterns and then to analyze which things were working and which weren’t.  It was alternately discouraging and exciting to see how I would react to the beginning of a day’s work, to the inevitable occasional verbal constipation, to the moments of panic or boredom, to how slowly or quickly the words counted up, and to how enthralled I would get when thoughts and fingers were flowing freely.  By pushing myself to write such a large quantity of words in a day, I had to push past several obstacles.   I began devising ways to compensate for the things that bogged me down and to facilitate effective ways to capture the thoughts that were swirling faster than my fingers could race.   I also noted that having these dedicated hours at the keys eventually provided a venue for a few ideas that had been languishing – particularly if I had taken care to record somehow, somewhere at least a smidgen of that particular notion.

What else is most important to me?

While cranking out a certain number of words is my first task, I also hope that I will end up with something somewhat cohesive and maybe even usable – even if only fragments and after much editing.    Presumably this hope of something usable is more likely to become reality if I have some sort of plan and probably a general idea of direction or theme or topic or plot.  Oh, yah – plot – since this is supposed to be fiction or at least a novel.  Forgive me for momentarily forgetting that.

The plot 

You probably aren’t planning to do NaNo unless you have an idea.  However, the idea may not seem clear until you start contemplating the project.  I think both years my idea came together in the last couple days of October.  This was one of the first lessons I noticed: often inspiration waits for me to prepare a space for it and to welcome it.  What is really cool is when several old ideas start to gather themselves under a bigger theme – and once a few of them have clustered together I may be able to come up with enough stuff – or at least way more than I could for one of those single topics.  

So yes, I figured out that I needed to come up with a plan...

NaNo note to self - Part One

I first took the NaNoWriMo challenge in 2010.  A couple years later I took time to write a letter to myself as a way to remember some of the things I had learned in those first two years.  I pull it out from time to time as a bit of instruction and inspiration.  I have since posted that letter here - in four installments.  (Disclaimer:  This piece is full of all kinds of silliness and fun.) 

NaNo Tips:

What Worked 

What Didn’t Work

An open letter to my current self

from my former self as a NaNo novice

by Kaye Sims

October 27, 2012

Part One:

I have participated in NaNoWriMo twice now – two years in a row.  I consider it a success for several reasons – mostly because of the sense of accomplishment, but also for some of the things that I learned in the process.

I have discovered that it is helpful to go back and see some of my notes leading up to the previous experiences, to remind myself of what works and what doesn’t and to get caught up again in the fun of the project.

This is a compilation of ideas and thoughts and gimmicks and warnings – some of which were well-thought out, some were just stumbled upon, and some are mere observations.  You will probably heed some of the advice and let yourself ignore most of it.  That’s okay because this is your novel and you make the rules.

Before going any further, maybe we should address this novel thing.  The first year I did NaNo, my Miss Goody Do-Everything-Right-and-according-to-the-Rules struggled with whether I could legitimately call this thing a novel.  I had never written fiction before and hadn’t the foggiest clue how to go about it.  Nerd that I am, I searched around for definitions until I found that there is such a thing as an autobiographical novel.  Aha!  That’s what I could do!  So that’s what I did that first year. I wrote an autobiographical novel.  Sort of.  

When the second year came along, I decided I could fudge a little and just write whatever I dang well felt like writing.  After all, this was my novel; I am the author and I can make the rules.  Only problem was that I had no clue as to the direction I wanted to write – so I started out simply exploring that dilemma – of the girl who wanted to write a novel, but didn’t know how.  Yah, yah, silly idea, I know.  But you have to admit it is a rather novel idea. And so I began typing nonsense about the girl who wanted to write a novel, but didn't know how...  Turns out I got a little better acquainted with that girl in the process.

It seems that there are three phases to participating in NaNo:

• The commitment
• The plan
• The process

(To be continued...)

Simply gifts

Thankful Thursday

~  ~  ~

Some of the best things in life

are not tied to my great performance

or even to right behavior.

They are simply gifts.

I can try to justify my right to have them

or I can simply choose to be grateful.

~  ~  ~

I choose thankfulness.

October steps

Soft and steady steps on hard-packed gravel

Raucous joyful crunch

of brittle poplar leaves lining the pathway eventually surrendering to the hush of silent carpet

Whispered steps

barely perceptible

in the amazingly lush October grass

GOODSTOCK '19

Fifty years ago was Woodstock.

This year we had the return of Goodstock - which had been held in our neighborhood from 2003 to 2012 and then disappeared for six years.  

Photo cred: Bob Sims

But this year we brought it back.  I say "we" because we as neighbors helped to make it happen.  I was honored to be involved with the neighborhood engagement team who worked for months planning and preparing for this special day.  It all came together this past weekend with absolutely PERFECT weather.   What fun to be part of the return of an iconic event.  

So what is GOODSTOCK?  It is a one-day music festival under the big top surrounded by a variety of vendors selling handmade candles and soaps and other art.  But mostly it's about the people.  Vendors, volunteers, all kinds of staff and crew, artists and musicians.  And neighbors.  Lots of neighbors.  'Twas a happy time.  A good time to live in Carriage Town.

Photo cred: Bob Sims