Last night I got a little sick of writing my NaNoWriMo novel thinking it was just too dreadful, going back and forth between chuck it and there’s plenty of time for editing. Chuck it was winning. For the first time I reread from the beginning what I have written so far. Surprisingly it wasn’t as bad as I thought it was. I didn’t bother with any editing (and there certainly has to be some a lot) but the main thing I was concerned about was the voice of my protagonist. I want her voice to change slightly throughout, with her having a very different voice at the end of the story than when it started. I don’t know if that’s going to actually happen or not, but I was satisfied to see her voice wasn’t all over the board only 15,000 words into the story. My writing tends to come out differently with my changing moods, and I was afraid the tone of my story would reflect that and not have any continuity. Listen to me, talking about protagonists and continuity. I sound like a real writer!
Jane Austen was a writer. A real writer. But does the fact that she’s been published and that her works are considered classics make her more of a writer than I am? Well, sort of, I guess.
I’m still not on board with the whole “if you write you are a writer” thing, but it kind of makes sense. If one plays the piano she is a pianist whether she does so professionally or not. If I write then I am a writer. It seems like people have different expectations when you tell them you are something. That’s bugged me for a long time. When people ask “what do you do?” how does one respond? I cook, I clean, I write, I craft…the list can go on and on. But when someone asks “what do you do?” they’re always referring to your profession, or how you earn your money. For those of us who earn a living with a job we feel no passion for, that question can be annoying at the very least. To a stranger or acquaintance we’re defined by our jobs and it’s only until someone gets to know us that we become more complex and interesting. We could be interesting at the outset if we told strangers what we really do rather than how we earn money.
How great would it be if when asked “what do you do?” people answered with what they do to find joy in life rather than their profession. If they answered “I’m a writer” because they keep a journal. If they answered “I’m a baker” because they love the feel of flour on their hands. We’d find out more about who that person is rather than how they earn money. Or maybe we should change our initial question to “what do you like to do?”
Right now I’m a writer. It’s consuming a lot of my time, and whether it will eventually earn some money for me or not it is, among many other things, who I am. Now, off I go to do that voodoo I do so well.*
* You don’t even have to do what you do well to claim it as what you do. That’s the beauty of it all!
Auntie B's Wax 
I trashed the first draft of my novel. I read through, got the feel of what I was trying to do, but could only see the bad instead of the good. For every chapter there was maybe one line I kept in my second draft. For every character outline I’d written there was one element that made it through. Sometimes the best thing you can do as a writer is to start all over again, and my book ended up better because of it but it could have gone the opposite way. I’d say that part of the craft is knowing when to do that and when you’re being a bit over critical. I’m glad you’ve found that balance as it’s too easy to just trash everything you’ve done.
I should point out it wasn’t written for something like NaNoWriMo, and I didn’t have to shoot through and start another one straight away to finish on a deadline. I honestly don’t think I’d be able to do NaNoWriMo as my process doesn’t fit that timeframe.
Good luck with your novel.
I love this – ‘How great would it be if when asked “what do you do?” people answered with what they do to find joy in life rather than their profession’.
Ooh – Re-reading your NaNo novel before you’re done can be fatal. I did NaNo last year and I had to call upon a few tricks to help me through at various points! Firstly, and this is a good writing tip if you’re ever suffering from writer’s block, even if it’s not in NaNo – throw something unexpected and extreme into the story, from nowhere, like suddenly a bomb explodes (that was what I went for), or an alien ship crash lands – it might be nothing to do with the story, but go with it anyway, and just explore how your different characters react and what happens in the aftermath. You’ll probably take that scene out later, but you’ll have had fun writing it, you’ll have got over a writing hump, and you might have learned some things about your characters. Another thing I did in NaNo was suddenly throw in a fairly explicit love scene – it took me totally out of my comfort zone, because I never write that kind of thing, and again, I’d probably delete that scene later and never show it to anyone, but it got me through a tricky writing block! And finally, when I could think of NOTHING to write one day, I got my two main characters to decide to sit and listen to some music, and I wrote out the lyrics they were listening to just to get my word count done for the day! Desperate times.
Hope you like my NaNo tips and good luck! 😉
Sara I love it! Im a chocoholic and a writer like you! With a passion to one day write something people will love to read. We have to start somewhere and I am proud to say you have inspired me to take on the challenge and NOW I am realising I can utilise my time better too, so thanks! From your friend the writer.
I, too, get frustrated with the incessant question, “What do you do?” I’m retired and I do lots of things, but it seems you only “are” something if you are paid for it. That’s just not right.
And I think that, having written one book and working on finishing another, writers do more than write. They think about plots and voice and themes and characters. They create stories and animate them with words which they choose carefully. They fret about sentence structure and where to put commas.
Writing a story, short or long is VERY different than writing a grocery list!
When I write, I get in this zone. My story starts “playing” in my head as if I’m watching a movie and I try to get it all down as accurately as possible–one scene after the next. When it comes to me this way, my characters’ voices stay true and the plot reveals itself to me–sometimes in surprising ways.
I’m not one for outlines or planning. I just have a basic idea of where I think the story should go and start typing. The “movie” starts and off I go. That’s how this novel is writing itself at least.
Keep going. Trust in the work you’ve done so far. Imagine your characters on a movie screen and watch what they do, knowing that you are the director!