(click on box to view short video clip of Bob Mayer’s presentations)
Hard to believe Thanksgiving is just around the corner and the end of #NaNo is fast approaching. Many writers will have a “draft” of their novel at the end of November. This brings me to a question. Is it okay to write crap? Every writer knows that they are going to have to revise. There is a difference between revising for content (story) and line edits. One of the things we are working on at Who Dares Wins Publishing is a guide to critiquing that focuses on story. This guide will help writers critique each other more effectively, but also help in the draft stages of our writing.
But what is crappy writing?
I’m currently working on a Romantic Suspense novel titled Legacy of Lies. Nine months ago, I thought I had finished the draft. I sent the partial to an agent and a friend. When I got the comments back, I realized I took the story in the wrong direction. Not only that, but I had made the same mistake I’d made in the last two novels…my antagonist took over the story. I cut his point-of-view and went back to the drawing board with my main character. I had to make her more likable. I also had to really examine her motivations and actions. They didn’t make sense. In the process of doing that I found out that who I thought was my antagonist, wasn’t my antagonist at all, which is why nine months ago the book didn’t work. What’s even more interesting, I found this out when I joined a new critique group that meets for “brainstorming” sessions only. Its very different from any other critique group I’ve been involved in, but it reminds of me of when I took Bob’s A-Team workshop. The focus is on character, story and developing them into a great book.
I used to not give myself permission to write crap until I spent a weekend with a writing friend and mentor. I was struggling with the above book and she said “sometimes you have to let yourself write the ugly just to get the story out.” I used to think each chapter had to shine before I went on to the next chapter. But she reminded me books aren’t about chapters and if I wanted to finish the project I had to get to the end, not go back and edit, fix, fiddle and procrastinate. Good advice.
But again, what is crap? It’s the ugly raw writing that hasn’t been polished. It’s our subconscious at work. It’s not worrying about dotting every i and crossing every t. It’s writing every bad cliché and having a million not so great metaphors’ and dangling a few modifiers. It’s about splitting infinitives and to boldly go where have not gone before. This is what I love about #NaNoWriMo.
But with every good news thing in writing, there is a bad news thing attached. The good news is, you’ve got a draft. The bad news: Is the writing the ugly raw writing? Or something else? It’s the something else that worries me when a writer is solely focused on word-count. Its tunnel vision. Yes, we have to write through things and get to the end, but we also have to make sure we’re moving toward something. Words for the sake of words doesn’t create a page turning novel. Having written a book during NaNoWriMo I can tell you fixing bad story telling is harder than fixing up the words on the page and making the story and characters stronger.
Some of the best writing I have ever done has come from slowing down, taking a step back, taking a deep breath and looking at where the story has been, where it is now, and where it is going.
In some ways I wish NaNo was every month. I love watching writers post their goals and their progress. I love the energy it creates. I hope everyone who is participating feels good about their successes, even if they didn’t complete the word count. Keep writing. Keep pushing yourself.
A crappy draft is a draft that is the beginning of something spectacular.
Write It Forward.
Crap writing happens. But if it leads to something that is superior to crap—hopefully many rungs above—it’s okay that such mediocrity spawned from our fingertips. That’s the beauty of NaNoWriMo, isn’t it? To generate evidence that crap can grow up into lovely swans of language. Notice, too, that there is no month for rewriting….
There are several versions of NaNoWriMo throughout the year. I have several of them bookmarked. At least two forums run a NaNoWriMo or the equivalent every month. Some are site specific, on Live Journal, for example. Some don’t share the name, but the goals are similar (one on LJ goes for 3 months at a time, with relative goals, for example.)
Thank you for this post. This quote in particular spoke to me: “fixing bad story telling is harder than fixing up the words on the page.” I’m going to print that out and put it next to my computer, to remind myself of why it is important to stop and take stock when things just don’t feel right. Even if the wordcount suffers in the short-term, it’s the overall story that counts in the end.
To me it’s about trusting the subconscious. That you are putting things down on the page that you have little idea why you did it. But later on, that subconscious seed sprouts into a key plot point. One thing that really helps is to look at every character you introduce and every incident in your story, and consider how many more, and different, ways you can use them. You might introduce a character in a scene in order to move that scene forward. That’s not good enough. That character has to serve more purposes later in the plot. Consider the concept of three-peat. If something or someone doesn’t serve at least three purposes or isn’t mentioned at least 3 times, then you’ll eventually need to get rid of it/them.
A key concept in Warrior Writer is trust the power of the subconscious.
Yeah, crappy writing happens. I write crap all the time. My big thing is not stressing over word count. When I do that I tend to get stuck and only think of putting the words on the page, not moving forward. I generally don’t set goals in word count, but scenes when writing in draft. When I edit, my goals are based on what I’m editing for, or layering in. Its what works for me.
I’ve seen other writing activities, but NaNo seems to be the biggest one.
Trusting my subconscious has been difficult. I have to always remind myself that I don’t have to get it right away. Hard for me.
Thanks so much for your post. It reminds me of something Supreme Court Justice Brandeis said. “There is no great writing, only great rewriting.” Loved the Misery clip, too. All the best.
“Atlantis” by Bob Mayer. ISBN: 978-0-9842575-8-4.
Who Dares Wins Publishing.
This book is so badly put together that I must draw its defects to the attention of Bob Mayer and WDWP.
a) There are numerous spelling and grammatical errors.
b) Lines have slipped out of place.
c) New lines have not been made where necesary.
d) Conversation sequences have ben mixed up.
e) A character’s name changed temporarily.
f) There is no spacing between many paragraphs and between scene-change sub-
chapters.
The book appears to have been printed directly from a first draft on computer, and has not been proof read. It also appears to have been written with a film version in mind. It is not quality “literature”, nor quality publishing.
Dennis Golden