NaNoWriMo, Day 16 ... on the downhill stretch
Nov. 16, Day 16: 36,106 words.
Sounds good eh?
And I actually like my story and my characters. Unfortunately, I'm consumed by authorial self-doubt about this project, more than almost anything I've ever written. Sure, I like it -- but I'm convinced everyone else will think it's dull. My story has no plot. My characters do nothing but sit around talking. My main character is a cipher, a passionless nonentity whose only purpose is to fall in love with the hero. I am the Dullest Writer Ever. What's the good of writing 36,106 words of boring, repetitive, meaningless drivel?
Worse yet, this self-doubt has bled over into ALL my writing. I am now convinced that EVERYTHING I write is horribly dull, that I never have any concept of plot, that I cannot write an interesting character or situation to save my life.
Clearly, some kind of NaNo-induced malaise has crawled out of my keyboard, up through my fingertips and permeated my brain. Or I just have the wrong channel of Radio KFKD playing inside my head. Don't worry, it's not serious and I'm sure it will go away. And there are probably some valuable lessons to be learned from this malaise. Such as: in the current novel, my heroine really is kind of bland. Largely because I haven't gotten to know her well enough. She needs to be more well-rounded as a character, and this will require lots of rewriting.
But I will think about that when November is over! For now, I'm past the half-way mark in the month, I'm past the halfway mark to the official NaNo goal of 50K words and well on my way to my own personal goal of having a complete first draft by the end of the month. And I am going to tune in to KFKD and turn up the OTHER channel, the wildly self-aggrandizing one which constantly plays how I am the greatest living writer and on which I am constantly being interviewed by Shelagh Rogers about my Governer General's Award and my Giller Prize. I'm turning up that channel REALLY LOUD, so if you want to tell me my novel's dull, La-La-La I can't hear you.
Sounds good eh?
And I actually like my story and my characters. Unfortunately, I'm consumed by authorial self-doubt about this project, more than almost anything I've ever written. Sure, I like it -- but I'm convinced everyone else will think it's dull. My story has no plot. My characters do nothing but sit around talking. My main character is a cipher, a passionless nonentity whose only purpose is to fall in love with the hero. I am the Dullest Writer Ever. What's the good of writing 36,106 words of boring, repetitive, meaningless drivel?
Worse yet, this self-doubt has bled over into ALL my writing. I am now convinced that EVERYTHING I write is horribly dull, that I never have any concept of plot, that I cannot write an interesting character or situation to save my life.
Clearly, some kind of NaNo-induced malaise has crawled out of my keyboard, up through my fingertips and permeated my brain. Or I just have the wrong channel of Radio KFKD playing inside my head. Don't worry, it's not serious and I'm sure it will go away. And there are probably some valuable lessons to be learned from this malaise. Such as: in the current novel, my heroine really is kind of bland. Largely because I haven't gotten to know her well enough. She needs to be more well-rounded as a character, and this will require lots of rewriting.
But I will think about that when November is over! For now, I'm past the half-way mark in the month, I'm past the halfway mark to the official NaNo goal of 50K words and well on my way to my own personal goal of having a complete first draft by the end of the month. And I am going to tune in to KFKD and turn up the OTHER channel, the wildly self-aggrandizing one which constantly plays how I am the greatest living writer and on which I am constantly being interviewed by Shelagh Rogers about my Governer General's Award and my Giller Prize. I'm turning up that channel REALLY LOUD, so if you want to tell me my novel's dull, La-La-La I can't hear you.
posted by TrudyJ | 9:36 AM
4 Comments:
So...uh...what's the frequency of that other station? The wildly self-aggrandizing one? I could really use that one.
I don't understand you artistic types! Flakes...the lot of ya! :-)
You've got more talent pouring out of your fingertips, than us mere mortals can ever hope to attain. SNAP OUT OF IT! :-)
Luvs ya!
Sherry, even you, who have loved me since I was 12, got bored with one of the characters in my (unpublished) last novel! The reason we writer-types torture ourselves so much is that we're constantly trying to anticipate what will make you reader-types happy!! :P
Trudy, I thought the whole point of Nanowrimo was to turn off KFKD. You know that whatever you write in November is only getting the clay on the table. After November, you will continue to shape it into something beautiful and brilliant. Don't doubt that. The only question is: will you still remember us when you're getting all those interviews and awards?
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