Is Your Story Worth It?

3:23 PM Gemma Fitz 12 Comments

(So this post is going up late, but better late than never.)
Something I keep hearing over and over again at this time of year is "NaNoWriMo makes you write a bad story."

And this makes me sad. It makes me sad because it's a lie. It makes me sad because it scares people. And it makes me sad because just about this time in the month, when my motivation has dried up, my plot disappeared, and every word I write looks like trash, I start believing it's true.

Maybe you're there, too. Maybe you're wondering why you ever thought this NaNo thing was a good idea. Maybe you're wondering how 50,000 words written in a 30 day lapse of sanity, powered by coffee and chocolate, can ever become something beautiful.

For you, the fearful, the discouraged, I have a question.

Is your story worth it?

That's really the standard here. It doesn't matter whether you write a novel in 30 days or 30 years. It doesn't matter whether the first draft is spotless or a complete garbage dump. It doesn't matter how long it is, how old you are, how much experience you have-- what matters is is it worth it?

Why are you writing this story? Why does it matter? Why did you originally fall in love with this idea? Maybe you have a message you want to share with the world. That matters. Maybe you wanted to prove to yourself or somebody else that you could do it-- you could write a novel! That's important. Maybe you're just doing it for fun, because it seemed like a cool thing to do. That's worth it, too. 

There are any number of reasons you started writing this month, and believe me, whatever it was that got you started, it was worth it. It was worth starting, it was worth getting those words on the page.

And now you get to decide. Is it worth finishing? Or, to put it another way, is it so utterly worthless that you could actually bring yourself to give up now? Do you love your characters that little? Is your message of so little importance to you? Do you really want to miss out on this opportunity to write a real book-- or at least give it your best shot? Are you really happy with giving up?

There's a reason writers (and other artists!) experience fear. We're writers! We live scary lives! We put so much of ourselves on paper-- all our talent, or lack of it, so much of what we believe, so much of what we love, so much of everything that matters to us. And for many of us, we've defined success as having someone else read that piece of paper, which has so much of our identities wrapped up in it, and actually like it.

And if they don't?

As writers, we can't afford to be afraid. We can't afford to doubt ourselves. We can't afford insecurity. Because as soon as we let the fear creep in, our entire way of life is in danger. Once the doubt takes hold, it's far, far too easy for us to give up. And so we don't let ourselves be scared. We give ourselves anti-fear pep talks. We tell ourselves that we're doing great.

And then somebody walks in and says that NaNoWriMo can only produce a bad story. And then we start to believe him.
Now, does NaNoWriMo make you write a bad story? Here's the hard answer: yes. But not in the way people say it does. Every story you write is going to be a bad story. I'm sorry. It is going to be. No story starts out perfect. First drafts are ugly. But that doesn't mean you should give up.

Something my pastor says all the time is, "If something is worth doing, it's worth doing poorly." If your story is worth writing, it's worth writing in 30 days and making a mess of. It's worth trying to write in 30 days and failing miserably. It's worth never participating in NaNo and taking years to complete. It's worth never completing at all. It's worth it.

NaNo doesn't have to make you write a good story. The beauty of NaNo is that it motivates you to write a story, no matter how sucky it may seem. You wrote something. Maybe 50k of sparkling, witty genius. Maybe 100 words of dry, worthless mediocrity. It doesn't matter, because you wrote something.

Is you story is worth it? If so, don't let anyone tell you your doing it wrong.

Why did you start writing your story? If you're doing NaNo, how's it going?

12 comments:

I adore comments! Just keep it clean and respectful...please no profanity and while I respect people's opinions and love a good argument, simply bashing my post is obviously not appreciated. :)

Beautiful Books #2: The Writing Process

8:19 AM Gemma Fitz 2 Comments

Beautiful Books is back!! What is "Beautiful Books" you ask? It's yet another link-up which affords me the chance to throw my NaNo novel at your heads and yell at you about how awesome it is.

Basically, Beautiful Books is a lovely link-up hosted by Cait @ Paper Fury and Sky @ Further Up and Further In in which you get to answer 10 questions about your current WIP. It's particularly geared towards NaNo novels, but it can apply to any book you happen to be working on. And it's truly awesome-- you should do it.

1. Is the book turning out how you thought it would be, or is it defying your expectations.

Definitely defying expectations. I mean-- it's funny. Guys, I was going to write a super creepy urban fantasy/paranormal, bordering on horror. But at this point, it's looking a lot more like a sitcom. And-- I'm not really sure if I'm disappointed or not?

2. What's your first sentence (or paragraph)?

Um-- it's really boring, but here goes.
"You mean Micah didn't tell you?"
 Yeah, not very interesting but you asked for it.

3. Are you a plotter or a pantser? Have you ever tried both methods and how did it turn out?

Urgh, hard question. I identify as pantser, but it is actually incredibly rare that I go into a book without some idea of where it's going (my current novel was one of those cases, and I was/am really nervous about that). But I don't outline. Or take notes. Or write hardly ANYTHING down (except for names, because I'm always afraid I'll forget a good one). I just kinda let things stew in my brain for a couple years before I start writing.

But yes, I have tried both. Basically every time I start a new novel I freak out and decide, "DUDE, I really need an outline this time round so I know where I'm going." And then I try to write an outline and after about ten minutes of it, I'm about as stressed out as I am at any point in the pantsing process, so I quit.

4. What do you reward yourself with after meeting a goal.

Um-- chocolate!

At least in theory. My problem with reward systems is that I forget to reward myself. I'll finish the chapter and then forget to go get that piece of cake I promise myself. It's really sad.

5. What do you look for in a name? Do you have themes and where do you find your names?

I look for something that fits the character. It's that simple, and that hard. I will scroll through long lists of names, saying them aloud until I find the one that fits perfectly. Often times there's no reason to why a name fits, other than it sounds right.

Though, in my NaNo novel, my MCs name, "Rae", was chosen because it's a homonym of "ray" and it seemed an appropriate name for a protagonist pitted against a shadow for some reason. *shrugs* I'm cheesy like that.

As for where I find my names, I either pull them out of thin air or just google baby naming sites.

6. What is your favourite to write: beginning, middle, or end? Why?

End. Because it's done and that is the best feeling. Also, the end in most of my stories is where everyone dies, and I just really enjoy killing my characters for some reason.
I also quite like the beginning, however, because that's when I'm still excited about my story and not burned out and miserable.

7. Who is your current favourite character in your novel?

*panics* *shrieks* I LOVE THEM ALL.

If I had to choose, though, I absolutely adore my MC, Rae. She's actually my favourite protagonist I've ever written. I usually fall for the side characters (who die) in my novels and end up hating the MCs, but not so with Rae! She certainly holds her own, and I relate with her so much, even though we're totally different (no, seriously, I'm pretty sure Rae is an ISTJ, while I'm an ENFP-- we are totally different). Plus, she's just plain hilarious.

8. What kind of things have you researched for this project? How do you go about researching? (What's the weirdest thing you've researched?)

I just went through my Google search history, and here are some of the things I found (that have to do with my story).
  • what's the character in doodle jump called
  • paranormal sightings
  • life force energy
  • english to old english translator
  • bible belt
  • talking shadows
  • how long do you have to wait in line at the ER
  • motorcycle store
  • redneck names
  • how hot does it get in (insert various cities)
  • can you hear worms in the ground
... I think that answers all the above questions?
I will say though, do not look up shadow people if you value your sleep at night.

9. Do you write better by yourself or with others? Do you share your work or prefer to keep it to yourself?

Uh-- everything depends. I prefer to write by myself in real life during NaNo, so I don't get distracted (outside of NaNo, though, I am totally okay with other people in the room). However, word wars are life and make everything better, so there's that. As for sharing my work, in theory I will share it when I've edited it a couple dozen times and it's finally good enough for anyone to read without dying from the sheer awfulness of it. That hasn't happened yet, so I don't share my work as a whole. However, I sometimes will share snippets.

10. What are your writing habits? Is there a specific snack you eat? Do you listen to music? What time of day do you write best? Feel free to show us a picture of your writing space!

I don't have writing habits. I don't have habits, period. I'm too forgetful to have habits. I may do something and like it, but I forget to do it again, and so I never make it into a habit.
That being said, I wrote an entire post about my writer's life a while back, and you can go read it if you want.

That's all folks! Are you doing NaNo? How's your novel coming? And which do you prefer-- beginning, middle, or end?

2 comments:

I adore comments! Just keep it clean and respectful...please no profanity and while I respect people's opinions and love a good argument, simply bashing my post is obviously not appreciated. :)

Snazzy Snippets #2 (In Which I Force My NaNo Down Your Throats)

5:14 AM Gemma Fitz 12 Comments

If you missed the train back in September and didn't participate in Snazzy Snippets, it's back-- just in time for NaNo-- and you should really go do it. What is Snazzy Snippets? It's a bi-monthly link-up hosted by Alyssa @ The Devil Orders Takeout and Emily @ Loony Literate where you get the perfect excuse to shove your novel into the faces of unenthusiastic blog readers.

It's awesome.

So here we go!

a snippet without dialogue

Well, this one was easy. This is actually my favourite passage of my novel, so far. I love both Rae (my POV character) and her shadow (in spite of the slightly awkward fact that it's evil) and cake, so I am extremely happy with this snippet.
I’m not sure why it doesn’t bother me that my shadow can talk. I mean, that isn’t normal, right? The rest of the world isn’t going around with whispering shadows and just not telling me about it, right? Your shadow doesn’t talk to you, right?
I thought not.
I guess I’m just used to it. I don’t remember quite when it started, but I do remember that I had a “seizure” on my ninth birthday, which was really just my shadow pulling me to the floor and holding me there so that it could let me in on the fact that the birthday cake might be poisoned, and it really wasn’t a smart idea to eat a piece before someone else had tried it first and proven that it was fit for consumption.
None of which I cared about, I might add. I just wanted cake, and I started crying when my shadow wouldn’t let me stand up, which contributed to my parents' conclusion that I was having a seizure. (I should probably mention that neither of them had ever seen a real seizure.)
I spent three hours of my ninth birthday waiting in line at the ER. By the time I got in, my shadow had given up on me as a lost cause, and I was totally fine. But the cake was gone by the time I got home.
(This is why I sometimes say I had a traumatic childhood. I’m really not exaggerating.)

 a snippet featuring a family member

There is some really important family stuff going down in this story. Rae has two sisters, and her relationships with both are far from perfect, but kinda cute anyway.
When Sophie gets home, I’m already waiting for her, sitting on her bed. It’s softer than mine, and the blanket I stole from the foot and draped around myself is really warm. I might steal it for good.
The doorknob turns and Sophie steps in. She glances over me, then rolls her eyes and heads towards the bathroom. “Go away, Rae,” she says.
“I thought we had something to talk about tonight?” I ask.
“Rae, it’s 9 o’clock. I’m tired. Do you really think this can’t wait?”
“Did you have to work overtime today?” I don’t really care. “And no, this can’t wait.”
“Fine,” says Sophie. She grabs a hairbrush from her nightstand and runs it through her hair as she sits down next to me. “Go ahead, shoot me.”
Sophie is actually a pretty good sister, but for some reason we don’t get along too well. Maybe because I’m not a good sister. Or maybe just because we are the two most different people in the history of the universe.
I struggle with all the words I want to say for a moment. “What are you even doing?” I finally manage.
“Brushing my hair-- you?”
“Ha ha-- hilarious.”
And I'm going to stop there for today.
Did you do Snazzy Snippets? (can i have a link?)

12 comments:

I adore comments! Just keep it clean and respectful...please no profanity and while I respect people's opinions and love a good argument, simply bashing my post is obviously not appreciated. :)