According to Stephen King, there are two activities that I could use more of in my life: being rude and writing. Of the two, the more important addition would the four to six hours devoted to writing ten pages double-spaced or about 2,000 words. Clearly, both choices would be the perfect additions to the life of a college student.Outside of that, I find his methods to be very useful. Most of his writing techniques follow a pattern that is also used by a yearly event called National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo or NaNo for short). This event takes place in November and demands that participants churn out a 50,000 word novel in 30 days. Likewise, King suggests that writers focus on one novel and work on it every day until they get it done (taking no longer than three months or so depending on the project).
King favors this method, because when he doesn't write every day, characters become less real to him (a problem that I can relate to after not working with some characters after awhile). On top of changing feelings, the excitement for the project begins to fade, making it harder and harder to write. Based on his success and what he says throughout his memoir, this technique is very effective for him.
The ultimate goal of King's method and of NaNo is to get the first draft of the story out. The only difference between the two is the amount of time it takes. With Nano, the goal is to write it in 30 days instead of the maximum 90 days. Some participants of NaNo plot meticulously over the the year, others play it by year (which is another piece of advice from King, although NaNo's founder wrote a book for NaNo called No Plot? No Problem!). Most of the time when November comes around, leaving yourself open to plot surprises end more successfully than the people who start plotting in January. The plotters lock themselves into a rigid plan, while the other participants gives themselves wiggle room to let their characters take control and keep the story going. It's a very successful technique for me anyway. It has been since I first participated in 2004. Since then, I have participated and won every year. The last two years, I was able to finish my first novel of the month within 9-15 days, and I started a second novel.
If you want to learn more about NaNoWriMo, you can check out the website here.
I want to learn more about your novel...what's it about?
ReplyDeleteFrom my experience, even how little I have, to write you need motivation. I only manage to write large chunks of/finish a story if it's in one-sitdown, on a deadline, I'm writing with someone else, so they can inspire me with new ideas, or if people are reading it and begging me for more.
ReplyDeleteI too want to hear about your novel(s).
I can quite easily see how taking a break from writing a particular story could hamper character development - for me, not necessarily through the writing of novella, but rather when I have to write a large(r) academic paper, such as the final paper of my Shakespeare seminar last semester. Your example of NaNo really helped to tie in a more personal, "real" note to the post.
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