Indeed, it happened.
In twenty-six days I spewed 50,940 words onto 191 pages and called it a novel. Really a very rough draft of a novel, the product does contain the prototypical elements: Plot, characters, conflict, beginning, middle, end, and so on. This "novel" is no more publishable than a roughly hewed hunk of marble is a pieta. Many revisions must occur before it ever leaves the hard drive on which it now reposes. Yet even Michelangelo was once a rookie sculptor. I do not compare myself to the masters of art or literature, nor even to today's genuine authors, but I do relish the completion of something I'd never done and wasn't sure I could do.
This post is not to call attention to me. I really hope to share some observations for anyone who might consider a similar effort:
Like running, writing is a therapeutic passion. The investment of time and energy yields a positive return in self-fulfillment and self-knowledge. "Wow, I really had that stuff skulking around inside my brain? Yikes! Talk about catharsis!" Quite fortuitously that catharsis comes without the cost of a shrink to set it loose. And, it beats the heck out of PowerPoint briefs, be it reading or making them.
Regardless of the actual written result, the creative process compels a deeper and broader understanding of life and self. A scene begins headed in one direction, but then it comes out all different...usually but not always better than originally conceived. Where did that come from? What subconscious power drove fingers over keyboard in exactly that sequence to produce exactly those words? Curiously, the ripest sentient idea sometimes never bridges the gap from brain to fingers. Instead a more profound expression takes form, one not fully conjured until it splays itself fully across the page, seemingly on its own power. It becomes the tangible summation of multiple cerebral synapses firing faster than the speed of light, or even of dark.
The NaNoWriMo challenge promotes that creative, insightful process. With only 30 days to put those 50,000 words into some sort of story, the erstwhile writer cannot afford the time to self-censor. And with that overbearing superego set aside, novel things do happen. That's the beauty of it.
In the end, it does not require perfection or publishability. It simply is. Just as the real value of a marathon is in the training, the benefit of this challenge is in the writing. At the end of the day you realize you can do it, and you want to do it again...and better.
Showing posts with label writing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label writing. Show all posts
Saturday, November 27, 2010
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
NaNoWriMo
So, what is this "NaNoWriMo"? (Other than a reason why I may create fewer blog posts this month?)
The acronym stands for "National Novel Writing Month," a product of the Office of Letters and Light, which also sponsors "Script Frenzy" each April. NaNoWriMo promotes creative writing by challenging participants to complete a 50,000 word (or more) original novel in one month, between 1 - 30 November. Thousands of writers from all over the globe participate, many taking advantage of the resources available on the sponsoring web site, as well as support from writing groups set up in key locations throughout the world.
One "wins" NaNoWriMo by simply accomplishing the goal of writing that much original fiction in one month. The goal is to produce the words, so the products are rough drafts, not polished or publishable tomes. Serious writers may opt to rewrite their work into finished novels after the competition. Indeed, some past participants have gone on to publish their novels. But such is not the real intent. NaNoWriMo primarily encourages would-be novelists to venture beyond the dreaming and dive into the actual crafting. In the process many learn that they can, indeed, just do it.
Last April I participated in Script Frenzy, which had a similar goal of writing a 100 page script for either stage, screen, or comic book, within the 30 days of 1 - 30 April. I'd never written drama before, but figured nothing to lose by trying, especially with the ship underway and time on my hands. Much to my surprised delight, I completed a three act play a few days short of the deadline. (Not, however, ready for prime time even to this day after several rewrites.) More importantly, I really enjoyed the process. When it was all over, I continued to develop my interest in dramatic writing and recently completed a draft teleplay for for a one-hour television drama pilot. (Also not ready for prime time, pending a couple more rewrites.)
So now I've elected to try creative fiction writing in the novel format. So far it's an interesting and fun transition from present tense, dialogue heavy, action-based writing to past tense, descriptive narrative emanating from the minds as well as the voices of the various characters. Also a bit daunting, I might add, which makes me appreciate those true professional authors who turn out best sellers year after year. Much as with Olympians or accomplished musicians, we admirers usually see only the polished perfection that is the result of hours, days, weeks, and years of steadfast practice and hard work.
But, if creating beauty or entertainment were really easy, where would be the pleasure of watching a virtuoso performance, enjoying a fine movie, or curling up with a really great book?
Kudos to those committed, creative professionals whose ardent labors enlighten our lives through art, music, and literature!
The acronym stands for "National Novel Writing Month," a product of the Office of Letters and Light, which also sponsors "Script Frenzy" each April. NaNoWriMo promotes creative writing by challenging participants to complete a 50,000 word (or more) original novel in one month, between 1 - 30 November. Thousands of writers from all over the globe participate, many taking advantage of the resources available on the sponsoring web site, as well as support from writing groups set up in key locations throughout the world.
One "wins" NaNoWriMo by simply accomplishing the goal of writing that much original fiction in one month. The goal is to produce the words, so the products are rough drafts, not polished or publishable tomes. Serious writers may opt to rewrite their work into finished novels after the competition. Indeed, some past participants have gone on to publish their novels. But such is not the real intent. NaNoWriMo primarily encourages would-be novelists to venture beyond the dreaming and dive into the actual crafting. In the process many learn that they can, indeed, just do it.
Last April I participated in Script Frenzy, which had a similar goal of writing a 100 page script for either stage, screen, or comic book, within the 30 days of 1 - 30 April. I'd never written drama before, but figured nothing to lose by trying, especially with the ship underway and time on my hands. Much to my surprised delight, I completed a three act play a few days short of the deadline. (Not, however, ready for prime time even to this day after several rewrites.) More importantly, I really enjoyed the process. When it was all over, I continued to develop my interest in dramatic writing and recently completed a draft teleplay for for a one-hour television drama pilot. (Also not ready for prime time, pending a couple more rewrites.)
So now I've elected to try creative fiction writing in the novel format. So far it's an interesting and fun transition from present tense, dialogue heavy, action-based writing to past tense, descriptive narrative emanating from the minds as well as the voices of the various characters. Also a bit daunting, I might add, which makes me appreciate those true professional authors who turn out best sellers year after year. Much as with Olympians or accomplished musicians, we admirers usually see only the polished perfection that is the result of hours, days, weeks, and years of steadfast practice and hard work.
But, if creating beauty or entertainment were really easy, where would be the pleasure of watching a virtuoso performance, enjoying a fine movie, or curling up with a really great book?
Kudos to those committed, creative professionals whose ardent labors enlighten our lives through art, music, and literature!
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Resurfacing
Been underway for a few days, mostly beneath the cloud of a "limited bandwidth" environment, meaning no internet and very little e-mail access. For some of my younger shipmates this is a crisis of major proportions. For me, it's back to the future.
This is my third Navy assignment to sea duty, each with expanding envelopes of connectivity from the sea to family, friends, and the rest of the world. Today I feel as though I've resurfaced, perhaps temporarily, from the Twilight Zone.
My first deployment as an air wing flight surgeon in a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier occurred in the late spring and early summer of 1993. We had no internet, no e-mail, and no phone service. We relied on snail mail while underway and pay phones when ashore in a foreign country. We numbered our handwritten letters sequentially, because they would seldom arrive in chronological order. So if the last letter I received from home was #6 when everyone was doing fine, and then I got #9 saying "We're all better now," I had to wait patiently, and somewhat nervously, for the rest of the story in either #7 or #8. Except sometimes one or both of them never came, leaving me indefinitely clueless. Some of that cluelessness persists to the present day.
Prior to the deployment I looked forward to the port visit schedule, a typical "Summer Med Cruise" idyll . Many of the crew booked plane tickets and hotels for spouses to join them in exotic ports of call in Mediterranean playgrounds. But the old salts knew better and saved their money. Thanks to bigots in Bosnia and some dude named Saddam in the Middle East, most of those port visits were cancelled. During the six month deployment we spent all but 18 days at sea...without e-mail, phones, or internet. Whenever we did actually get off the ship for a port visit, the first thing that most of us did was wait for hours in crowded lines at pay phones for the chance to call home, collect. Kathy was thrilled to hear my voice when she answered the phone, disappointed to hang up a half hour later, and livid when she got the $300 phone bill at the end of the month. We were not exactly flush at the time.
"Don't call!" she said when I embarked in another aircraft carrier for my second deployment in the late fall/early winter of 1997. "It's too hard to hang up, and we can't afford the bill." She was right, of course, as usual. BUT, at least we had e-mail then. So even though we still perferred the romance of writing actual letters in longhand, sequentially numbered of course, we also had the relative luxury of real time e-mail communication when and if we wanted or needed. The ship also had phones available, but you had to buy a phone card to use them. I recall they were some outrageous price like $10 a minute, which no doubt included the MWR cut. So I didn't call. Well, except for Christmas Eve when I got to use one of the ship's POTS ("Plain Old Telephone Service") lines for free to call Kathy in Michigan where her large extended family was gathered at her parents' house. "Why are you calling?" she scolded. "You're interrupting the present opening." (This was really a big deal in her family then. I would have been upset too.) So I never called again during that deployment.
Now I'm on a highly sophisticated communications platform, where I have ready access to e-mail, multiple telephone lines, internet, Facebook, Twitter, and other cybercoms that I don't begin to understand. But the bandwidth-challenged environment of the last four days has sent me back to the future to that first deployment, where I wrote a lot and accomplished a number of goals like earning a surface warfare designator and logging almost 100 hours of flight time off the deck. Amazing what you can get done when you're not able to surf the net. Same is true of the last four days. Wrote a lot, read a lot, accomplished a lot.
Now we are back to normal communications. Haven't exactly rushed back to the internet. I plan to continue writing, reading, and accomplishing some other goals. And, no I don't plan to call home until we are back at the pier.
This is my third Navy assignment to sea duty, each with expanding envelopes of connectivity from the sea to family, friends, and the rest of the world. Today I feel as though I've resurfaced, perhaps temporarily, from the Twilight Zone.
My first deployment as an air wing flight surgeon in a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier occurred in the late spring and early summer of 1993. We had no internet, no e-mail, and no phone service. We relied on snail mail while underway and pay phones when ashore in a foreign country. We numbered our handwritten letters sequentially, because they would seldom arrive in chronological order. So if the last letter I received from home was #6 when everyone was doing fine, and then I got #9 saying "We're all better now," I had to wait patiently, and somewhat nervously, for the rest of the story in either #7 or #8. Except sometimes one or both of them never came, leaving me indefinitely clueless. Some of that cluelessness persists to the present day.
Prior to the deployment I looked forward to the port visit schedule, a typical "Summer Med Cruise" idyll . Many of the crew booked plane tickets and hotels for spouses to join them in exotic ports of call in Mediterranean playgrounds. But the old salts knew better and saved their money. Thanks to bigots in Bosnia and some dude named Saddam in the Middle East, most of those port visits were cancelled. During the six month deployment we spent all but 18 days at sea...without e-mail, phones, or internet. Whenever we did actually get off the ship for a port visit, the first thing that most of us did was wait for hours in crowded lines at pay phones for the chance to call home, collect. Kathy was thrilled to hear my voice when she answered the phone, disappointed to hang up a half hour later, and livid when she got the $300 phone bill at the end of the month. We were not exactly flush at the time.
"Don't call!" she said when I embarked in another aircraft carrier for my second deployment in the late fall/early winter of 1997. "It's too hard to hang up, and we can't afford the bill." She was right, of course, as usual. BUT, at least we had e-mail then. So even though we still perferred the romance of writing actual letters in longhand, sequentially numbered of course, we also had the relative luxury of real time e-mail communication when and if we wanted or needed. The ship also had phones available, but you had to buy a phone card to use them. I recall they were some outrageous price like $10 a minute, which no doubt included the MWR cut. So I didn't call. Well, except for Christmas Eve when I got to use one of the ship's POTS ("Plain Old Telephone Service") lines for free to call Kathy in Michigan where her large extended family was gathered at her parents' house. "Why are you calling?" she scolded. "You're interrupting the present opening." (This was really a big deal in her family then. I would have been upset too.) So I never called again during that deployment.
Now I'm on a highly sophisticated communications platform, where I have ready access to e-mail, multiple telephone lines, internet, Facebook, Twitter, and other cybercoms that I don't begin to understand. But the bandwidth-challenged environment of the last four days has sent me back to the future to that first deployment, where I wrote a lot and accomplished a number of goals like earning a surface warfare designator and logging almost 100 hours of flight time off the deck. Amazing what you can get done when you're not able to surf the net. Same is true of the last four days. Wrote a lot, read a lot, accomplished a lot.
Now we are back to normal communications. Haven't exactly rushed back to the internet. I plan to continue writing, reading, and accomplishing some other goals. And, no I don't plan to call home until we are back at the pier.
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Half Way Through the Frenzy...And Knowing The Moment
Some readers may recognize that this post's title refers not to my current deployment or circadian rhythm-disrupting exercise, although that inference would not be far fetched. Some may have already noticed the ScriptFrenzy logo that first appeared on my sidebar at the beginning of April. Others might actually click on it and learn that it hyperlinks to the ScriptFrenzy web site. That non-profit organization sponsors an annual challenge to promote creative writing. To win ScriptFrenzy, one must simply author an original 100 page first draft script -- screenplay, stageplay, TV show, short film, or graphic novel -- during the 30 days of April. Approaching mid-month, some 20,694 writers have completed 170,270 pages. I am one of those authors, and last night I passed the 50 page mark...two days ahead of schedule.
Seem difficult? Not so much as you might think. If one writes daily, it's only 3.3 script-formatted pages per day. So, with the rule of thumb being that one page of script equals about one minute on the stage, most of us can conjure up three and a third minutes of cogent dialogue and action that might appeal to a real audience. Besides providing the opportunity, and motivation in the form of periodic online pep talks, ScriptFrenzy also offers a wealth of advice and writing resources either directly on their website or in links contained within it. These alone are worth the investment in time by any would-be author. One can even download stage and screenplays for inspiration. I'm currently reading "American Beauty," plus a translation of a delightful Russian play entitled, "The Dog."
A recent ScriptFrenzy pep talk hit squarely home because after struggling through the first writing week, I had already experienced The Moment before I read the following by Chris Baty:
"The Moment, you see, is already upon me. ...I'm speaking, of course, of the Moment when we wonder what the heck we were thinking when we signed up to write a 100-page script in a month.
I know I've slipped into the Moment when I start feeling overwhelmed by everything from work to friends to the nagging question of whether I'm supposed to capitalize the SIX PACK OF BEER that my main character has taken to dragging around from scene to scene.
In Week Two of Script Frenzy, you may find yourself experiencing your own Moment, and decide you're lacking something essential to win Script Frenzy this year. An extra week. Better writing software. Characters that make sense.
...hitting the Moment is a very good sign. It means that we're sailing past the safe moorings of our known world and are venturing into the great place beyond. (Author's note: The naval analogy totally hooked me here.)
This creative space is where we do our best work. It's a surprisingly productive zone where we get to witness the full power of our imaginations, build engaging stories, and pick up those ninja-level writing insights that will forever expand the scope of what we're able to accomplish.
Thankfully, defeating the Moment and getting into the juicy place beyond seems to come down to something very simple: Five pages.
Yep. Five pages. In my experience, unplugging the internet, sitting down, and plugging away until I've added five pages to my total count changes my mood dramatically, and puts my script happily in motion."
The Moment also exists in other aspects of life. Who among us hasn't experienced a metaphysical moment when we allowed our minds to descend deep, away from the daily noise that distracts our consciousness...to a quieter, more contemplative place where we witnessed the full power not only of our imagination, but of our knowledge and life experience? That elusive place where our minds, hearts, and souls overlap in the center of our own internal Venn diagram, the place we call "insight"?
If allowed by a quieted, open mind, that insightful Moment can occur at the most opportune time, perhaps when a life is a bit too chaotic and discoordinated...not sure where to go next. Like the frustrated scripwriter we may be tempted to give up, or at least give in. Settle. But taking proper advantage of The Moment can lead us to insight, upon which we burst ahead to write the next few pages that set our life happily in motion again...to a different ending that is so much more satisfying than our original vision.
Whether the topic be profession, relationship, avocation, self-image, spirituality, or some other of the multifacets that make up a life, we all occassionally need The Moment to see us through a creative block and get us moving on to a more productive place. Such is my recent experience.
A somewhat successful dramatist named Oscar Wilde once wrote, "Life imitates art far more than art imitates life." So true.
Seem difficult? Not so much as you might think. If one writes daily, it's only 3.3 script-formatted pages per day. So, with the rule of thumb being that one page of script equals about one minute on the stage, most of us can conjure up three and a third minutes of cogent dialogue and action that might appeal to a real audience. Besides providing the opportunity, and motivation in the form of periodic online pep talks, ScriptFrenzy also offers a wealth of advice and writing resources either directly on their website or in links contained within it. These alone are worth the investment in time by any would-be author. One can even download stage and screenplays for inspiration. I'm currently reading "American Beauty," plus a translation of a delightful Russian play entitled, "The Dog."
A recent ScriptFrenzy pep talk hit squarely home because after struggling through the first writing week, I had already experienced The Moment before I read the following by Chris Baty:
"The Moment, you see, is already upon me. ...I'm speaking, of course, of the Moment when we wonder what the heck we were thinking when we signed up to write a 100-page script in a month.
I know I've slipped into the Moment when I start feeling overwhelmed by everything from work to friends to the nagging question of whether I'm supposed to capitalize the SIX PACK OF BEER that my main character has taken to dragging around from scene to scene.
In Week Two of Script Frenzy, you may find yourself experiencing your own Moment, and decide you're lacking something essential to win Script Frenzy this year. An extra week. Better writing software. Characters that make sense.
...hitting the Moment is a very good sign. It means that we're sailing past the safe moorings of our known world and are venturing into the great place beyond. (Author's note: The naval analogy totally hooked me here.)
This creative space is where we do our best work. It's a surprisingly productive zone where we get to witness the full power of our imaginations, build engaging stories, and pick up those ninja-level writing insights that will forever expand the scope of what we're able to accomplish.
Thankfully, defeating the Moment and getting into the juicy place beyond seems to come down to something very simple: Five pages.
Yep. Five pages. In my experience, unplugging the internet, sitting down, and plugging away until I've added five pages to my total count changes my mood dramatically, and puts my script happily in motion."
The Moment also exists in other aspects of life. Who among us hasn't experienced a metaphysical moment when we allowed our minds to descend deep, away from the daily noise that distracts our consciousness...to a quieter, more contemplative place where we witnessed the full power not only of our imagination, but of our knowledge and life experience? That elusive place where our minds, hearts, and souls overlap in the center of our own internal Venn diagram, the place we call "insight"?
If allowed by a quieted, open mind, that insightful Moment can occur at the most opportune time, perhaps when a life is a bit too chaotic and discoordinated...not sure where to go next. Like the frustrated scripwriter we may be tempted to give up, or at least give in. Settle. But taking proper advantage of The Moment can lead us to insight, upon which we burst ahead to write the next few pages that set our life happily in motion again...to a different ending that is so much more satisfying than our original vision.
Whether the topic be profession, relationship, avocation, self-image, spirituality, or some other of the multifacets that make up a life, we all occassionally need The Moment to see us through a creative block and get us moving on to a more productive place. Such is my recent experience.
A somewhat successful dramatist named Oscar Wilde once wrote, "Life imitates art far more than art imitates life." So true.
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