![[Logo]](/images/101ReasonsLogo.png "101 Reasons to Stop Writing")
In keeping with NaNoWriMo’s focus on padding, I’m posting two Demotivators this month where one would suffice:
NaNoWriMo
The challenge of an arbitrary target and deadline
without the burden of any expectation of quality.
click for larger version (widescreen)
Photo by Michael Connors, the founder of MorgueFile.
And, because I don’t want to wait another year to use this:
NaNoWriMo
Anyone can be a writer, if you set the bar low enough.
click for larger version (widescreen)
Photo by Linda Badner, via Morguefile.
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I HAVE A REASON!
Reason to stop writing:
The NaNoWriMo site is down.
This is a sign.
Even the pit of shit doesn’t want your book.
If you don’t mind me asking, what exactly is your beef with Bruce Sterling? You’d mentioned that a couple of posts back, something about he and Warren Ellis seducing readers and then appalling them off as they found other, better writers. I know Zenith Angle was pretty bad, but (and it’s been years since I’ve read anything by him) what’s wrong with his work, in your opinion?
Now’s not the time to mention that I weakened and asked for advice for a NaNoWriMo subject?
Heather, “the pit of shit” is so … eloquent.
Paul, do you carry a stick with you, for all the shit you like to stir? And what is the nature of Bruce Sterling’s beef?
Why should I use a stick when my hand works just as well?
At least with a stick you can burn it afterwards.
I don’t think any amount of washing can get that kind of shit off…
Sean, I check around and I appear to have hallucinated the whole thing. Carry on.
Are visitors authorized to copy these Demotivators for use on their Facebook or blogs? Just wondering. These succinctly explain why I’m not NaNoWriMo-ing.
Yes, absolutely. I really must remember to make that clear every month.
NaNoWriMo was fun once! I can tell my friends that I’m almost a novelist because i wrote a crappy one-fifth-of-a-NaNoWriMo-novel in half a month…:) heehee
You are all sadly mistake and need to go to hell. When was the last time taht you sat down in a month wrote a fucking novel? when is the last time you were published. What the fuck do you think you are doing by dissing the rest of us who have participated in something that none of you have any experience in? i am fucking sixteen adn wrote over 70,000 words in taht month and it changed my life. you should be ashamed.
Hey guys. NaNoWriMo lover here. You’re entitled to your opinion and all that, I don’t mind, but not every NaNoWriMo novel is posted on the internet[thank God, most are not]. Sure, a lot of them are cliched piles of shit. Not all of them are, some actually turned into published works of art with lots of reworking. Look, the first draft of ANYTHING is shit, right? A famous author said that. Kudos if you know who I’m talking about. I mean, writers don’t just bend over and pull fantastic prose and poetry out of their anuses. It doesn’t work like that. Whatever you end up with at the end of November, well, it might have potential or it may need to be deleted, burned, and never spoken of again, but through the journey you, as one who likes to write, WILL have learned a lot. This experience will enrich and improve your writing in the future; One day, if you keep the free-writing up, take the time to edit/rework and rewrite your manuscripts, you might end up with something really, really special. That’s worth trying for, I think.
Everybody’s got to start somewhere. Why, since I wrote that first novel quite a few years ago[oh lord was it terrible], there’s been nowhere to go but up. I’m only getting better every time I push myself to write without thinking – I learn what my style is, I relax, I exercise my brain in strange, wonderful little ways, I appreciate published books more and more, and I have a lot of fun. That’s the point, you know? Having fun. Not getting published, Lord knows I’ll probably never make it to that point – but everybody’s got to have a dream, right? Something they strive for.
Caitlin does not speak for all of us. I’m kind of embarrassed about that. She kind of proved a lot of your points by misspelling, not using proper grammar, and she was kind of a bitch about it… I mean, I was angry too, when I read some of the things on this website, but I chilled out before I replied… The way to have a discussion between two opposing sides isn’t through insults.
Anywho, my .o2 cents.
Just so you know…
What you say about NaNoWriMo might discourage some people who may have had potential. That’s fine. Those of us who truly have a passion and love to write will not be affected at all. Those of us that write because we need to, because we love to – Those of us who have the passion – Well, nothing will keep us from doing what we do. Especially not naysayers.
In the end, it boils down to this, er, slightly modified quote from Ratatouille:
“Anyone can /write/. But only the fearless can be great.”
First of, I’m really hating the fact that someone else with my name posted such a nasty comment full of spite and vitriol. Ugh. That isn’t me, I swear – hopefully someone will believe me. Perhaps my lack of spelling errors and better grammar will help? I can only hope.
Aside from that, however, it really depresses me to see people so anti-NaNo. I’ve done NaNo since I was seventeen, and have been an ML since 2005 (though my area is wee and tiny), and I really think NaNo is a good thing. I know it’s helped my writing, I’ve had fun with it, and I’ve made a lot of good friends and learnt a lot every year. There’s something to be said about writing just for the sake of writing, and worrying about plotholes and inconsistencies after you’ve got all your ideas down.
Of course, this approach won’t work for everyone – no one approach does – but I know that it has really helped me personally, and I’ve seen it get kids who were previously totally uninterested in reading and writing very interested. As far as I’m concerned, anything that will help increase children’s literacy is a good thing, whether it’s NaNo or books like Harry Potter which, while it’s a fun story that people can read and enjoy and relate to to a certain extent, isn’t exactly a prime example of great English literature (that’s a place I would reserve for something like Scott’s Ivanhoe, or J.R.R. Tolkien, or any one of a number of other authors).
So maybe you folks here think NaNo is crap and a worthless endeavour, but to many, many people there is something worthwhile to be found there. If I’m lucky, I will be able to spend the rest of my life having the kind of fun in November with NaNo that I have had since 2003, when I first joined up.
Don’t knock it till you try it, and if you try it and don’t like it, well, different strokes for different folks. Not everyone is you. Some people just want to write for fun, while some don’t.
I’d believe all this bull crud, but I’m sure its roots are derived from Poe’s Law, and pretty much, it’s like running around and telling each indivdual teenager to not have sex and render their genitalia useless. It’s never going to happen. I’ll tell you what. Your plan will come through only when every single writer on earth has been eradicated. And I’d die for my right to a freedom of speech (which includes writing). So basically, I just stopped your hopes and dreams right there.
I respect your opinion, and I can’t force my beliefs onto. But you seriously need some help.
[...] par Sean Lindsay. (Photo : Michael Connors, [...]
[...] if that’s not enough to dissuade you, check out last year’s 2 November Demotivators as well. Categories: Demotivator [...]
If other NaNo-ers think it works to send in manuscripts December 1, let me make this clear: NOT my fault. Not all of us think, but some do–I’ve looked at what I wrote in the last two Novembers and here’s the truth: it’s bad. I need to rewrite them both from scratch. It’s like Edison and his light bulb; this material didn’t work, try again. I hope I don’t have to try 500 times to get it right, but I need to try at least once more before I even think of editing.
Here’s the thing, though: I now have two failures to refer to. NaNo07: ditch the subplot, add maybe two major new characters, jack up the plot, change the ending. Who knows; I may have to rewrite again after that. But it’s going to get better and my junk is a good way to say “You can get the words down on the page; now do it better.” NaNo08: new narrator, fiddle with plot, and lots more. Who knows when I’ll get to that…
Besides, you can’t edit something that’s only in your head! NaNoWriMo helped me get my stories down–plus, it helps to have companionship and people to answer your questions–and that’s a good start. They even tell us in the motivational emails that it’ll be junk at first–but it is a start. And judging by how long it’s currently taking me to edit one 2.5K short story, the only way I’ll be submitting anything in December is with a 1-2 year time lapse. Some of us, at least, try to be sensible–don’t blame the whole for the idiocy of some.
This is great. I am a writer. I love to write. I am not perfect.
I think sites like this one are great. If you discourage just one writer, then you will expedite their path toward what they were truly meant to do. The truth of the matter is, if you can be discouraged enough to the point where you don’t want to write…you are not a writer. It is as simple as that.
I have never been discouraged. I have never had someone say anything bad about my writing. Does this mean that my audience is too nice? It could be. I will just keep working away though.
Life boils down to what you think about first thing in the morning.
I think ‘I have to get writing’
If you think, ‘I want bacon’…maybe you should be a food critic or a cook.
If you think, ‘I have to pee’…maybe you should be a corrections officer.
If you think, ‘I wonder what my lead character would do if I…’ then you are a writer.
Write. Write. Write. Write…and if I tell you your work is crap, write or don’t write.
‘Do or do not, there is no try.’ ~Yoda
Go NaNoWriMo! I love meeting other writers…so fun to write together in silence and drink coffee…I’m being totally serious here…
[...] has its detractors, and some of their reasons are valid. I remember a publisher blogged about how many terrible novels [...]