![[Logo]](/images/101ReasonsLogo.png "101 Reasons to Stop Writing")
(jb, this one’s for you!)
Putting 50,000 words in nonrandom order in 30 days makes you a “writer” in exactly the same sense that changing a hundred lightbulbs makes you an electrician.
This is NaNoWriMo’s central conceit – the idea that you’re a “writer” if you attempt their arbitrary challenge. They actually boast this in their FAQ. It’s all about wearing the costume, the romanticised idea of a writer.
Whatever happened to wearing a cravat, not washing your hair, carrying a notebook full of scribbled haiku’s and nursing the same cup of coffee all day? Now I gotta write something?
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So if I do Nano and don’t wash my hair all month I’m okay, then?
Good, that’s settled.
As long as you’re not changing your habits.
Only my undies.
Wow, this is the first time a blog post anywhere has been dedicated to me. I’m moving up in the world.
I think we accept that most of what’s going to be written is going to be crap. But publishable work is also being produced which may not have otherwise made it to paper.
I don’t know why I’m defending this, considering I want every writer who has more talent than me to stop writing immediately. Once there are only about seven of us, maybe I can have the career I’ve always wanted.
Of course you have to write: do you know how expensive croissants and French cigarettes are in Australia?
Besides, you can always call the slash you produce ” erotica” and get some online per-download mob to ‘publish’ it and call yourself an author into the bargain!
NaNo calls you a ‘writer’ because you ‘write’.
Note that they never say you’re gonna get published.
But you wrote something, and that’s more than a lot of people who say “I’d love to write a novel and get rich some day” can tell you they did.
I don’t know if I want to wear a cravat. NaNoWriMo’s concept in insulting to writers who spend years honing their craft to treat it like a contest. But it seems to be the direction our society is going in we think that talent can be distilled into results and that everyone gets the same shot at it. Look at American Idol, or Top Model, or any other LCD programming designed to turn professions into contests, NoNoWriMo is the same. Sad comment on society.
NaNoWriMo? WTF is NaNoWriMo?
Oh I see! Is this what this is all about.
Well I agree, putting 50,000 words in non-random order in 30 days makes you a “writer” is like having a monkey throw paint on a canvas and call it “art”
It took for 21 months to write my first novel, and it’s crap. But its my first attempt and I LEARNT from it.
Sorry didn’t finish.
I don’t think anyone can just be a writer, you have to pay your dues and work at it.
I won’t go anywhere near a publisher until I think (and some published author friends) I’m ready.
so ‘check’