For the first time ever I've begun participation in a National Writing Month. Specifically Camp Nanowrimo. I was having trouble coming up with an idea for this project. I had a few ideas but none of them worked because they are either short stories, concepts I'm attached to and not quite ready to just write on the fly or something that I've already begun writing. In the end I came up with this. The title is more or less the concept of the novel: Thine Good Night on a Daring Quest in Medieval Times with Magic and Probably Dragons and Also a Princess!
Yes, I know, it's a mouthful. My intentions for the novel were to have a basic plot with archetypal characters with jokes and references to tropes of the fantasy genre that would keep it entertaining.
The first thing I learned after joining Camp Nanowrimo is that my method of writing without a clear plan or outline is called "pantsing" as in: "flying by the seat of your pants". I have to admit I really kind of like this new word. It describes perfectly, and perhaps somewhat unfortunately, the way I tend to go about most things, especially writing. The second thing I learned is that no matter how well imagined you have a scene in your head, it takes a lot of effort to squeeze those words out into a word processor. Eventually I realized 4,000 words in that I hadn't said anything funny at all. I was barely getting the story told amid a pile of poorly thought out syntax errors.
This made me start to wonder. What if the first draft is just the story. I can go back later and fix everything, make it all make sense and add all the clever things that I wanted to be able to think of in the first place. Then I can take out all the clever things that other people find not so funny. Here's to hoping that writers like Oscar Wilde thought of their most clever lines on the second time through.
Somehow, I doubt it, but for now I'll be pretending I'm out camping somewhere to try to get in the kind of mood I need to finish writing 50,000 words.
Yes, I know, it's a mouthful. My intentions for the novel were to have a basic plot with archetypal characters with jokes and references to tropes of the fantasy genre that would keep it entertaining.
The first thing I learned after joining Camp Nanowrimo is that my method of writing without a clear plan or outline is called "pantsing" as in: "flying by the seat of your pants". I have to admit I really kind of like this new word. It describes perfectly, and perhaps somewhat unfortunately, the way I tend to go about most things, especially writing. The second thing I learned is that no matter how well imagined you have a scene in your head, it takes a lot of effort to squeeze those words out into a word processor. Eventually I realized 4,000 words in that I hadn't said anything funny at all. I was barely getting the story told amid a pile of poorly thought out syntax errors.
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| Photo courtesy of Hans Kylberg under Creative Commons |
Somehow, I doubt it, but for now I'll be pretending I'm out camping somewhere to try to get in the kind of mood I need to finish writing 50,000 words.
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