Am I a Writing Athlete?—D.M.K.Ruby
Am I a writing athlete? Like a mathlete? But for writing? Having just gone through another National Novel Writing Month experience (NaNoWriMo for short), I have been thinking about what it takes to get through a month of writing 50,000 words. The support from loved ones. Your writing group cheering you on if you’re lucky enough to be part of one that is as supportive and enthusiastic as the DeadLies. The all-important snacks. The November NaNoWriMo playlist to spur you on and help generate ideas.
Are there parallels with endurance athletes? Am I an ultra-marathoner of writing, like an older, sedentary version of Courtney Dauwalter? Why do some humans want to push themselves to these extremes of endurance whether it be in athletics or music or art? I’m sure Ann Trasom, considered the greatest female ultra marathoner of all time, would laugh her ass off to see herself being compared to someone who is sitting in a warm room at a comfortable desk, writing with a hot cup of tea and a bowl of mixed nuts and Barbara’s Jalapeno Twists at the ready. Not quite the same as running through the night in the rain. But you see the parallels I’m trying to draw here.
The NaNowWriMo starting pistol goes off on November 1st, with some diehards starting right at 12:00am. No more nervous preparation for the outliners, no more amorphous ideas waiting to coalesce on the blank page for the pantsers. What drives someone to keep writing, pulling things out of their exhausted imagination as the clock ticks down to the midnight deadline on November 30th of every year? Personally, I start on the first morning and then, writing in fits and starts over the month, I make a final sprint to the finish by the end of the month.
I’m intensely curious about the kind of drive that makes someone train to run a hundred kilometres. The discipline of getting the body ready for that kind of amazing physical feat fills me with admiration and makes me wonder, can I somehow adapt some of their techniques to help me with my writing? Instead of my preferred method of writing erratically in big chunks of time, can I train myself to write in a steady drip every day? Would writing in big chunks of time benefit from alternating with more regular periods of focused pacing and planning? For someone who believes unscheduled time is the height of luxury, my soul balks at the thought of yet another addition to my schedule, but I also recognize that a task has a far higher likelihood of being completed if it has been entered into my timetable.
This year, with the encouragement of the writing group, I tried using an outline for the first time. Having an all or nothing personality meant that the outline ended up being very detailed and I’m not sure it was always successful as at times, I felt like a wild pony in a horse trailer. Perhaps if I had been less detailed with the outline and used broader strokes, I would have created room for more perceived spontaneity. Regardless, it was a wonderful experiment for this lifelong pantser and I thank the DeadLies for encouraging me to try a different approach.
Dear reader, have any of you participated in NaNoWriMo? What tips and tricks would you recommend for making your way through the month? Whether you hit the goal of 50,000 words or not, in my experience, even when you don’t finish, whatever you were able to write is more than what you had down on October 31st. Thank you for reading and I’m looking forward to your comments!