NaNoWriMo day 14: this may actually count as an epiphany

 The image to the left is my current desktop. It's either screen grabs or a descent into fangirling and the search for perfect death metal hair. WARNING: if I remember to get my favourite wallpaper off my other computer, I'll be able to combine the two things.

So anyway, I realised something a bit frightening today. If I wasn't doing NaNoWriMo, I probably would have stopped writing this story by now. I would have succumbed to the voice that tells me that some other story would be easier or that I need to spend more time planning before diving into a second draft. With no deadline, I wouldn't have been able to find the motivation to keep going in the face of all the problems I know I haven't fixed.

Camp NaNoWriMo Day 5: Liquid Story Binder and line notes

Day 5: software makes things better, right?

In view of the fact that I have to post something EVERY DAY...

This time I'm going to talk about the piece of writing software that currently irritates me the least, which surprisingly turns out to be Liquid Story Binder. I've decided I like it again, for a reason that on the fact of it seems pretty dumb. The reason is this:

Camp NaNoWriMo day -4: pants and software

I think as a writer two things are always going to bother me.

Planner vs. Pantser - why it doesn't matter

If you've been reading my blog, having my forum posts inflicted upon you or (surely not) reading my mind, you'll know I spend a lot of time thinking about the whole Planner vs. Pantser issue.

A writer's confession

So, it seems it's my turn to come up with the post for the WriYe blogging circle. I've been thinking about this for a while and never quite getting my head around a topic. That would be why I post so often, wouldn't it? I could just talk about that, but that's boring, so here's what I'm going to do instead:

I'm going to invite the people of the WriYe blogging circle to make a confession about their writing.

A pantser's crisis of confidence

This is what's going through my brain at the moment:

I am not a published author. I've written 14 complete first drafts, but I have yet to take the next step. I've never tested my methods to find out if a first draft written by the seat of my pants really can be turned into an acceptable novel. People all over the internet say it can't, that I wasted my time writing that crappy first draft. I should have just sat down and written a decent outline in the first place and then I wouldn't be smack bang in the middle of a crisis of confidence right now.

By the seat of my pants...

[rant]

NaNo is kind of annoying me at the moment. Every time I go there, everyone seems to be saying "YOU MUST PLAN" and "PANTSERS ARE MORONS". Of course it's impossible to write 50k in a month without spending eleven months of the year planning it, right? What kind of crazy person would try to write 50k in a month without planning the whole thing down to the positioning of the toadstool MMC accidentally crushes at the end of chapter 17?

Yeah, you can imagine how die-hard pantser Siana Blackwood feels about that...

So of course I keep trying to present the other point of view, the idea that you can write 50k (or even a fair bit more) in a month without having a plan. Only then I get irritated and start second-guessing myself...

I mean, I write the first draft in a full-screen text editor. Then I paste it into a word processor for spell-checking, read it a few times and then start making a list of what really should have happened. The list is just on a piece of paper or sometimes in a text file. I don't see the point of all the fancy writing software because I just never use all those features. If I'm happy with this basic list of software (just a text editor and a word processor), does this mean I'm not a 'real writer'? Ye Gods, I've never even written a single word while sitting in a coffee shop...

But then, so far thais year I've written:

1. No Light in the Dark - 95k


2. Dispersion - 120k


3. Blade's Edge - 65k


4. Night Without Stars - 75k


5. Hope - 85k


6. Dark Star - 100k


7. Broken Mirror - 66k


8. Crystals and Moonlight - 60k

... and started How to Nuke Your Enemies (currently 24k)

Eight completed first drafts, none of them written with expensive software, in a cafe or with months of planning in advance. I stand by my pants and by my 'write it anyway' philosophy.

[/rant]

To tell the truth, that's not stuff I expected to be able to say during my 12th month of wrimo-ing. The same people and the same advice were on NaNo last year and I consciously decided to disregard it and believe Chris Baty (No plot? No problem!). I haven't made the expected progression from pantsing a bad story to becoming a planner, though. I guess it's because I really do like the stories I've written. I still can't imagine editing Dispersion or Night Without Stars, because every time I start reading them the characters take over my head and I'm just living through the events along with them. Some tiny part of me knows they're the wrong events, but I really do love them anyway :).

Okay, I feel better now. Maybe I'll go and write something.

By the seat of my pants.