October, and a bit of a rant. Warning; strong language and snark

[necia_phoenix]

Originally published at Necia Phoenix. You can comment here or there.

Please note, the rant part in this, is not directed at any one person, rather has resulted in the piling up of MANY people who can’t seem to understand that sometimes people don’t always do what they want them to do. If you tend to read yourself into an unrelated rant and get offended… well you might want to skim past this one.

Duuuude what happened to the year? (I actually started to write this out and got sidetracked! )

Oh I know, I moved and everything went BOOM!!!

We are rapidly moving towards Nov, and NaNoWriMo. And already the naysayers are creeping out of the woodwork rolling eyes and sighing when it is brought up.

• **sigh** you have a month isn’t it early?
• Pre-planning is cheating!
• A true nanoer waits till oct 31 to come up with an idea…

Get over yourselves and let us have fun. I usually have an inkling somewhere in Dec, what my next NaNo project is about, 11 months ahead of time. It is a FUN time for me and I look forward to it.

Cause that’s what it’s about, don’t you get it? It’s about FUN. Sure it’s about words too, and writing a novel in thirty days (Which I can do on a regular basis if I would crack ass every month), but overall it should be, in its crazy madcap way, fun!

I can understand and empathize with the folks, you know who you are, who have tried nano and found nothing about it enjoyable. I GET you, I understand your experience was overly stressful, and I wouldn’t dream of trying to push you into trying it. No my chief issue is the people who love to complain or try to turn it into some sort of elitist party.

There are all sorts of arguments against NaNo and I usually just roll my eyes and chalk it up to people who are too busy complaining to write. But I’ve been doing nano since ’04. And letmetellya, hearing the same old complaints, the same old BS year after year gets old.

I’m not going around wasting my time complaining at the people who decide not to do it. I, personally, feel that everyone who is a writer, should try it at least once. There is an energy, a hard to describe camaraderie which comes with nano. It can be a wonderful feeling of community that lifts you up and helps you out as you go along. But I’m a realist and understand that for many it simply isn’t an option, not with the holidays and school everything else that entails, RL is a bitch sometimes.

However, I will address one of the complaints that make me want to b*tchslap people who complain about it; it’s the complaint about high volume writers. Those  high output writers who blast through nano at 100,000 words or more. I would LOVE to get to that high an output. I don’t, honestly, come close to that in a month. Not even on my good months (65k – 70k in a month is my best, and that wasn’t even a nano month!).

There are people, with nothing better to do, who believe that high wordcount = shitty words. Ok. And then rant and rave about how **gasp** high output means that you are writing shitty and therefore are to be looked down upon from some high assed horse up in the sky.

uhm.

Who cares? I mean, really, haven’t they ever heard of editing? You know, the art of improving what is written. Thats what a majority of writers seem to talk about doing. Nano ones no less than non nano ones. It just kinda goes with the territory, you write a novel, whether it’s during nano or it takes 5 years, you turn around after a time and edit the damn thing. So why continuously bitch about high volume writers? I mean how is Writer C writing a double or triple nano(or averaging 100k a month), confounding your life? Are you going to lose your house, or car or job because Sally in Seattle wrote 100k in Nov? Uhm, no. No it won’t. It’s right up there with Gay marriage and donuts during dieting. You don’t like it, don’t feel it’s right for you, then don’t fucking do it! Yet people whine and bitch and moan and complain. Like it’s some sort of personal affront that “Oh Noes! You’re writing more that 2 words a month! You’re not agonizing over every fucking syllable.” 

**coughs**

Can you please stop bitching about what other writers are doing and actually put BIC and write? Maybe you’ll find yourself finishing projects for once. And yes I’m bitching. 8 years of hearing people whining about how awful NaNo is kinda builds up. **blows raspberries** get over that too!

I know, and count among my friends, 3 people who have astounding wordcounts. And everything I’ve read from these three people is phenomenal. It’s awesome. High wordcounts usually, in my mind, mean these people have mastered the art of getting their thoughts down as fast as they think them, or close to it. They have practiced, usually over many years, and in environments where they had to get as much down as fast as possible, to be able to articulate their thoughts at that speed. This is a skill they have worked very hard to build up. It shouldn’t be put down and complained about, it should be commended and admired.

Not everyone writes the way I do, not everyone writes the way my friends do. I know many writers in all areas and skill levels and every single one of them has worked hard to get where they are. Some of them find nano fun, as I do, some of them find it stressful, some wish to do it and simply can’t, some don’t care for it at all. Thats okay.

But for those who don’t, who protest it, who naysay it and sigh and whine and complain “Oh god here’s another nano” Just… keep it to yourself. Seriously. I’ve heard it all before. Most of us who have done it over and over again have. And you know, the arguments against it sound as silly now as they did when I first heard them 8 years ago. Turn that complaining time towards your writing, use that energy you waste bitching about what other writers are doing (which have no adverse effect on your life personally) to improving your own craft.

NaNo is MY fun time. And this blog is going to talk about it. A lot. Because it makes me happy.

[steps off soapbox]

8 years of doing nanos? I hadn’t realized I’ve been doing it that long! 0.0

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Comments

[queenoftheskies.livejournal.com]

I haven't seen NaNo bashers out yet. People are so close-minded.

I think no NaNo for me this year. I shall shake pom poms for you.

[necia-phoenix.livejournal.com]

Just a comment here and there and all the annoyance just spewed forth. :P

You have had a pretty stressfull time. {{hugs}}

[xsnarkasaurus.livejournal.com]

...okay, i've seen people who're down on nano in the "i could never do that, and I don't know how anyone else can," but not...like that. What? god, seriously. get over yourselves, people, fuck off.