NaNoWriMo 2019

It's November 8th, and so I'm 8 days in. I'm averaging over 2,200 words per day even though I need only 1,667 to hit my target of 50K by November 30th, mostly because I'm paranoid that life will throw me a curveball and a day will arrive that is so chaotic that I cannot write at all. This is my first time participating, even though I've sworn I would do it every year since at least 2006.

Perhaps you haven't been on the internet since 1999, and have no idea what I'm talking about. It's November, which means it is National Novel Writing Month, otherwise known as NaNoWriMo. The official goal is 50,000 words in 30 days. That's an achievable amount of writing for many people, but it pushes you hard, which is kind of the point. The originator of this idea realized that if the goal was too soft, people would have time to think, to reevaluate their writing choices, to second guess what they just wrote yesterday. This allows that Inner Editor in the door, and that rat bastard knows the fastest and most devious ways to slip a knife between the ribs of your Inner Writer, thereby shutting down the process. NaNoWriMo is structured so that you need to work just fast enough that you can't go into editing mode, but slow enough that you don't burn out before day 30. It's true that 50,000 words is more of a novella than a novel (I think it works out to be about 100 pages), but demanding that people keep up this pace for two months in a row is almost certainly unreasonable. There are all sorts of ways to get that 50,000 whipped into novel shape and proportions, and the NaNoWriMo site tackles these issues in January and February, not to mention "Camp NaNoWriMo" which happens in April and July.

So anyway, what does this have to do with my gaming blog? Two things.

1. I am not going to commit to writing big posts this month. I'm now at the point in NaNoWriMo that I feel fairly committed. I know that I have some rough territory ahead - that it won't be easy. But with over 15,000 words written already (more to write today!) I feel like I can't abandon this project. I haven't written that many words all together since I wrote my thesis, lo those many years ago. I have drafts of a few posts that could be spiffed up and ready to go, and they may go out if I have gas in the tank for it. But my primary creative commitment is to NaNoWriMo, my second commitment is to my gaming group and the prep time I need to it, making my photography and blog come in tied for 3rd. I guess this blog will be a metric for how much gas in the tank I truly have.

2. I have this sneaking suspicion that my return to gaming, and in particular, DMing, paved the way for me to give NaNoWriMo an honest go this year. I see a connection between the need for a DM to be a good storyteller and the demands of a novel. I also know that my biggest bugaboo in plotting is letting terrible things happen to characters I love, and let's face it, that's what happens in D&D gaming sessions every single day. Exposure = greater comfort. Another gift of gaming involves learning how to pace. While I've always known about the need for good pacing in longer works of fiction, DMing a game really brings that point home and gives me practice in doing it in realtime. You can't push a party fast and hard 100% of the time - not only is it exhausting, it's also oddly monotonous. Relentless stress is something most people don't willingly sign up for. Nor do people want to role play - or read - 365 days a year of hanging out by the pool zoning out. And finally, D&D has given me a tool to deal with indecision. There are times while I'm writing where I know I need to add an element - a stressor, an encounter with some new thing/person, a new location. Sometimes I draw a blank, sometimes I struggle to choose between several options. In the game, I roll dice. For the novel, I may do the same, or I may say to myself in the coffeeshop that the next person who walks through the door will be the person my characters meet. Essentially, when I need it, I'm allowing a bit of randomness to enter my plot decisions. I have a tendency to bend everything to my intention, regardless, so it adds a little life to what might otherwise feel too insipid. I'm a "plantser". (People fall into 3 categories: Planners, who map out every detail in advance, Pantsers, who fly by the seat of their pants, planning nothing, and hybrids, like me.) I have many aspects of the work planned out, a lot of background material to incorporate, vignettes already planned, but my overall plot is not firmly nailed down. So I still have play in the line, a set-up which I'm liking even if it is uncomfortable to write. (I feel like I've got a bit of stage fright when I'm improvising.) It lets me flex and bend with the characters as they develop, rather than rigidly adhering to a plan that is not necessarily working all that well. I'm by no means the only gamer or writer to draw this parallel between writing and gaming - if you google that intersection you'll find a lot of pings.

So I've made a new label for this post: storytelling. It's a tiny waving flag of optimism. I'm hoping that this reciprocity between gaming and writing shows up again, here. And if you don't hear from me for the rest of November, no I haven't abandoned my blog. I'm just hunkered down in the family room, large mug of English breakfast tea at my side, tapping away at my word count. I promise I'll be back to a more regular schedule in December.