One of the most interesting things about doing NaNoWriMo is that it's given me a rare view into how effing crazy we human types all are - crazy and jealous.
Here's the thing: Anything you write in a month's time probably won't be winning the National Book Award. At best, you'll wind up with a mess with potential, and that's all I'm hoping for. The most important thing is keep writing. I'm a little behind right now, but I've got more than 25,000 words, which is the most I've written on a single project since my senior thesis.
Anyhoo, I'm pretty proud of myself. This apparently is enraging to some people, because you would not believe some of the comments I've gotten so far.
Some of them are to be expected, given the context. My ex, for example, listened to my synopsis and said, "It sounds like it could be more than readable." When I said, jokingly, I'd choose to take that as a compliment, he said, "Yes, it is. A cautious, measured compliment." But hey, that's pretty good for an ex, right? Just you wait.
Friday night, a boy I've never dated informed me that my subject was one of the most written-about of its kind. He then asked me who I thought would play my main character in the movie, and laughed and laughed.
Last week, a friend of mine asked me if I was still writing the damn thing, when I'd be done with it, and whether I thought it was any good, anyway.
It's not just me, either: Members of my writing group are reporting similar pissiness from their near and dear. One guy says a friend of his asked him if all he did now was write in pretentious coffee shops, so that other people could see him.
I'm honestly a little flabbergasted at the hostility. It's not like any of us have book deals. For me, writing a book has long been something on my Big List of Things to Do Before I Kick Off. Because I'm reasonable, I never specified "write a good book" or "write a book that sells a gagillion copies and becomes a New York Times Best Seller."
My point is that my ambitions are somewhat humble, and therefore, anyone who wants to do what I'm doing, can. Anyone can write a book. All they have to do is commit to writing a couple thousand words on the same subject.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Hard to avoid human behavior, unless you take up meditation in Tibet or yak farming in Idaho (even then, you'd have to contend with your own human behavior).
ReplyDeleteI can't remember when, but I know that you, at least once, shared some of your more serious writing with the readers of this blog. I remember that I, and quite a few others here, were moved and impressed by both your skill and your sensitivity.
Carry on with your writing. You most definitely have talent. Believe me. Because my talent is that I'm never wrong about anything.
So, i read all the entries that i didn't comment on, and i'm going to comment on them all at once, because I'm a filthy lazy bastard.
ReplyDeleteYup.
NaNoWriMo, eh?
I'd that four years in a row, and only actually made the 50k the first year, but never finished the novel. I'm the king of unfinished novels.
I didn't do it this year, because i really don't have the time.
...how is it possible to have good iron and be anemic?
Being slightly crazy is sort of fun, in it's way. Until you get to the parts with the panic attacks, anyway.
I don't know what's up with the AntiWriter Vibe you and your compadres have been catching. Fuck that noise. Fuck it right in the goat ass.
And on that note, time to go vomit! Yay!
hey, carry on! don't let the naysayers get you down. people get very hostile when others rise out of the shared slothfulness of complacent lives and they often really hate success though they swear they want it for you. they'd really rather you just lay around in your sweatpants doing nothing with them. and hey, doing nothing is sometimes the best thing to do--i'm not knocking it. but when we step out of someone else's comfort zone they are usually more than willing to share their displeasure. so pooh on them and yay for you! sounds like you've got some fun stuff going on. and congratulations on getting so much written!!!! yay, you! you go, girl!!!
ReplyDeleteThe key to avoiding pissiness in significant others while writing is to space said writing out over a longer period of time.
ReplyDeleteMy first 75k project took about 3 months of actual work spaced over about 11 years.
No one minded.
75k words, not dollars, just in case there was any confusion.
ReplyDelete