Maria Langer, who does the Maria Speaks podcast, had so much to say about my podcast and NaNoWriMo in general that she devoted an entire episode of her 'cast to the subject. And she's being gracious enough to let me redistribute it to all y'all.
Here's the mp3.
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I tried to listen to it all, I really did. But I turned it off after she started putting down the people running NaNo. Oh well. *shrug*
Have to say I agree with Kristy here. She did come off just a little pompous in that podcast.
If it wasn't for the forums, how can budding writers get help from others or support from anyone if they don't have any at home?
There is more to writing than getting Published in paper. If I want to be published, I just upload my novel to the web.
Listening to Maria's thing at the moment. I find her part about neglecting one's life odd - if anything, it's just the extraneous things (reading more, watching TV etc.) that get neglected. Hobbies and the like, basically.
I do think her comment about novel writing software is far off-base (and not even in the ballpark):L from what I gather, via poking at ywriter a bit, they're basically just sources for organising what is written, and more useful for editing or for writes who write scenes out of order. So yeah, they won't make you a "better" writer, but they could make you more efficient, if it's your cup of tea.
The part that amused me the most was that she has not finished a novel either. A writing group CAN work, and having someone who has published isn't some kind of holy grail -- their advice and methods and suggestions work for THEM, not necessarily for anyone else. And, imo, most of what can be offered is generally pretty obvious, which doesn't mean it shouldn't be said anyway.
So what should people get out of nano? The idea that they CAN do a novel. For me, the biggest thing is to take the high of "Wow! I finished it!" and use that to begin another project, to learn from what worked and didn't in the nano, and maybe begin editing it, or accept it as a trunk novel and steal things from it for use at a later date. Writing doesn't have to stop when nano ends. For this, writing groups are good things to motivate. Ditto with forums and the like.
Sure. it's time not spent writing, but so is sleeping and people DO need a break from time to time. Nano is writing a novel, or at least proving to yourself that you can write novels. Now, because this is eating up writing time (to say nothing of looking for a job time) I shall end :)
Okay, I lied. Did a bigger rant about it on my blog. Well, at least I'm getting a use out of the thing now ;)
On a note I forgot, part of the reason I was put off by listening to her for just a few minutes was because she did something that I HATE when having to deal with "professional" writers: She had to list all the stuff that she's had published, as if that was going to make her any better than anyone else.
(I actually quit a fiction writing class in college because the teacher would not SHUT UP about his published stuff.)
We're not here to applaud your career, we're here to write.
I also got the feeling that she didn't read much of anything on the NaNo website other than the general FAQ.
I donated to the website this year and last year. Why? Because I want to keep the site up. The forum goers put a huge amount of strain on the servers, and I donate to help keep the hammies going. I don't donate for the libraries, be they in some foreign country or in my own backyard. (My backwards redneck county already has two libraries that are well run and part of a state network, they don't need more support.) Other people might, but I'm just paying because I'm active-ish on the forums.
The point of NaNoWriMo isn't to make some weird iydillc dream come true, or to make people famous. (Though, I own a copy of "No Plot, No Problem." It's a good read.) It was not devised in 1999 so that, as she put it, some people could take other people's money and go on vacations.
The point of NaNoWriMo is to write.
It's to sit your butt down and crank out as much as you can, be it gold or pyrite.
I've already written my 50k, Miss Maria, where's yours?
(And sorry about the rant ramble. Imagine how long I'd go on if I had listened to the whole thing.)
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