{"id":376,"date":"2007-12-03T11:01:15","date_gmt":"2007-12-03T17:01:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/index.php\/2007\/12\/03\/one-third-short\/"},"modified":"2007-12-04T22:18:04","modified_gmt":"2007-12-05T04:18:04","slug":"one-third-short","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2007\/12\/one-third-short\/","title":{"rendered":"One-third short"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hats off to the organizers of National Novel Writing Month<\/a>. This group began in 1999 with 21 participants who challenged one another to write 50,000 words of a novel (which makes for a short but complete novel, Gatsby<\/em> length) in 30 days. The month chosen is November. The word count is conducted electronically via the Web site. That your draft is more than “All work and no play make Jack a dull boy” pasted repeatedly is on the honor system.<\/p>\n

I heard about it two autumns ago, recalled it last fall a little too late to give it a go, so this year I started haunting the Web site in August, and bought founder Chris Baty’s book No Plot? No Problem<\/em>. The challenge sounded fascinating. Besides the preferred commentary and reportage — and journals — I have written just a few short stories and dramatic scenes or monologues, never attempted a novel.<\/p>\n

Novels are scary, tougher than any other form. You need to be a genius and a workaholic. You need a lot of things, and the “nanowrimo” idea is to force yourself to quit making excuses. By plunging in — outline optional but vaguely discouraged — and having to keep up with the quota of an average 1,667 words a day, which is about three typed manuscript pages (12 point type, double-spaced), you learn to swim as you go along.<\/p>\n

For 2007, the Web site shows that 101,500 signed up for this insanity, and 15,334 wrote 50,000 or more words between Nov. 1 and Nov. 30.<\/p>\n

I am among the 86,166 who fell short of 50,000 words. While I am not a winner, I consider this a success: 33,685 words on 142 pages. My master’s thesis covered just over 100 pages, which is a decent length for this sort of social-science research paper, but other than that, I’ve never tried anything like this. Covering two-thirds of the course? Well, I’m proud, because it’s surprising and gratifying to have gotten even that far.<\/p>\n

The nanowrimo term for first drafts of even the novel masters has four letters; I’ll call it gibberish. It is reminiscent of Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird<\/a><\/em> lesson: quantity matters more on the rough manuscript than quality. Worrying bogs a budding writer down, often to the point of resignation.<\/p>\n

My draft is gibberish. I don’t care. On the advice of the nanowrimo organizers for people who can see they won’t hit 50,000, I spent the last hours nailing down key scenes and the ending.<\/p>\n

I know what to do next.<\/p>\n

Find the unopened bills on the unusually cluttered desk and pay them. Then after a rest, revise. -30-<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hats off to the organizers of National Novel Writing Month. This group began in 1999 with 21 participants who challenged one another to write 50,000 words of a novel (which makes for a short but complete novel, Gatsby length) in 30 days. The month chosen is November. The word count is conducted electronically via the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-376","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-course-of-words"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1701,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2009\/12\/absence-makes-blogs-shorter\/","url_meta":{"origin":376,"position":0},"title":"Absence Makes Blogs Shorter","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"December 7, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Brick has been sporadic for some weeks. With luck, it will be more active in December. Want an excuse? How about National Novel Writing Month. It\u2019s 50,000 words to create a first draft of a novel (around a 200-page book) in 30 days. November is the one. My third try,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Technical Difficulties"","block_context":{"text":"Technical Difficulties","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/briefs\/technical-difficulties\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"National Novel Writing Month","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/12\/nano_09_winner_120x240.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4666,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2013\/12\/dinting-not-daunting\/","url_meta":{"origin":376,"position":1},"title":"Dinting Not Daunting: Daily Diary for December","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"December 17, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"I lost in \"NaNoWriMo\" this past month. The goal of National Novel Writing Month, held every November, is to craft at least 50,000 words of a new novel (not revising a draft nor picking up an abandoned manuscript) in those 30 days. This was my fourth try, beginning in 2007.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The Course of Words"","block_context":{"text":"The Course of Words","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/course-of-words\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3146,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2011\/09\/making-book\/","url_meta":{"origin":376,"position":2},"title":"Making Book","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"September 15, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Here it is September, and not only that but mid-September, and I have not posted my periodic list of books absorbed. This will be the second year I have attempted a complete list of books. Some I read, some I hear, as CD sets in the car while commuting. January\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Mr. Boo Klist"","block_context":{"text":"Mr. Boo Klist","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/mr-boo-klist\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2595,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2010\/12\/4th-quarter-no-overtime-soon-overdue\/","url_meta":{"origin":376,"position":3},"title":"4th Quarter, No Overtime, Soon Overdue","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"December 31, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"A final book list will close the 2010 year of Brick. After years of not starting then false starts, I resolved last January to keep a list of books on the home computer. It's a vanity project -- well, both the list and Brick are -- but it's been instructive:\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Mr. Boo Klist"","block_context":{"text":"Mr. Boo Klist","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/mr-boo-klist\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3186,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2011\/11\/wheres-the-sin-in-synchronicity\/","url_meta":{"origin":376,"position":4},"title":"Where’s the Sin in Synchronicity?","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"November 1, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"This column first was published as the \u201cPresident\u2019s Message\u201d in the November 2011 newsletter of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists. \"How can there be any sin in sincere? \"Where is the good in goodbye?\" -- \"Sincere\" by Meredith Willson in The Music Man It may be yet another way\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The Course of Words"","block_context":{"text":"The Course of Words","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/course-of-words\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2059,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2010\/07\/finally-a-book-list\/","url_meta":{"origin":376,"position":5},"title":"Finally, a Book List","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"July 6, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"This is a list, a record, an accounting. Dull in some lights, if not pretentious, condescending and childish: Look at what I've been reading, Mommy!\u00a0But in recent years, I've heard of more people keeping lists of books they've read. I've enjoyed looking at them. Nick Hornby's is a feature in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Mr. Boo Klist"","block_context":{"text":"Mr. Boo Klist","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/mr-boo-klist\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=376"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}