While all of that is true, I think it encourages reading and writing, which I can't be against. Reading a lot (And to some extent writing, just putting words in a coherent manner on paper) is the last bastion of honest intellectualism I can put my whole heart into. Yes you shouldn't just read trash, and write trash, but I am glad people are reading and writing.
If your goal is to produce something that will be published in a brick and mortar bookstore, Nanowrimo is not for you. If your goal is to get something out of your head that you've had knocking around and get it on paper, Nanowrimo is for you. When I was a young kid age maybe 6-10, I had a tape recorder that I would ramble into for hours at a time late at night. I had a hard time sleeping because my imagination was so vivid and detailed. I took some form of creative catharsis from just getting the ideas out of my head. Growing older is to silence a lot of that, and channel it into other areas. Nanowrimo is permission to excise that demon.
One of those 14 books is Wool by Hugh Howie. He was the Elvis of self-published authors before he ever ended up in a bookstore. I think it's f'ing hilarious that the best reason anyone can give me for participating in NinnyNinnyNooNoo is the same reason you pop a zit. Wash your faces, people.
I think people try, but fail. Or they use dirty water, or wash their face with lard, to continue your metaphor. Different strokes for different folks kb. If anyone gets some sense of peace or satisfaction out of expressing an idea, and it's not actively impugning on your life, is it such a bad thing? Even if you don't like it?Wash your faces, people.
Yes. YES. A thousand times yes. Here - let's pretend November is National Ballet Dancing Month (NaBaDaMo) instead. Come late October, everybody decides to take some time away from their Facebook and Reality TV to put on some dancing shoes. So they go out to Goodwill and buy a pair of tap shoes or engineer boots (since "hard toes" are the only requirement) and talk for a week about their tutus. Throughout November they all meet to encourage each other in their dance steps. They cheer each other on in online forums. And content-bereft listacle farms spew out puff piece after puff piece not about Mikhail Baryshnikov but about the six people who got to perform in their community theater version of "West Side Story." At the end of November nearly no one is still dancing but they all pat themselves on the back for "sticking with it" and "getting it out of their system" and look forward to next year when they will again stand on tip-toe twice a week for two weeks and call themselves ballerinas. Now: - Do you think that might denigrate the art of dance, rather than celebrate it? - Do you think that might degrade the professional respect of classically-trained dancers? - Do you think that time might have been better spent on something more productive? NeenerNeenerNooNoo gives people an excuse to pretend they aren't letting their goals slip by for 30 days instead of all year round. It's like giving up chocolate for Lent except since it's a social media phenomenon it gives people an excuse to yammer incessantly about their fucking novel to the point where everyone is legitimately dreading further discussion of writing in general. After all, the only books they've heard of are Hunger Games, Da Vinci Code, Harry Potter and 50 Shades. If you wanna write, write. If you wanna join, join. But don't for one minute think that joining will help you write. It will, odds on, hurt. If anyone gets some sense of peace or satisfaction out of expressing an idea, and it's not actively impugning on your life, is it such a bad thing?
I disagree somewhat. It definitely encourages that a first draft is created by vomiting forth - the problem with NaNo is that it doesn't do anything afterwards and most people assume that the 30,000 word piece of whatever they're left with is suitable for publishing. That's the real problem with NaNo - false advertising. For anyone looking to get an incredibly rough and dirty and detailed outline (to be murdered in editing), I think NaNo is still a great tool.
I think a week spent outlining is time better spent than a year typing shit to see what sticks. The very nature of NinnyNeener requires one to never.slow.down enough to figure out what the fuck you're doing. Some math: 14 published Novels from NinnyNinnyNooNoo (2013) 11 published Novels from NeenerNeenerNoNo (2012) 310,000 participants (2013) So. 14-11 = 3/310,000 = 0.0009% chance your NinnyNeener will be published. Meanwhile, the dismal odds editors use to get you to step up your fucking game? 0.2%. .2%/.00097% = 206 times more likely to get a NON ninny novel published. If you could do one thing that would make your book more than 200 times more likely to get published, wouldn't you do that one thing? That one thing is to not do NaNoWriMo.