NaNo Day 8: 63,634 (mini rants and progress)

I am taking a quick break from NaNo at the start of week 2 to cover a few things that have come up.  Many of them are the same stuff we hear every year.  So here are three little mini-rants and then a short progress report.

Number 1:

It's no one's business how you spend your free time, in November or any other month.  If you want to write 50,000 words, go for it.  Have fun.  It certainly beats sitting around in bars or watching television just to have something to do.  If you are doing NaNo on work time, then you deserve whatever reprimand you get.  (Oh, and if the boss can't tell if you are 'number-crunching' or writing in November, then I'd say there's a lot more wrong with the business than NaNo. Just sayin' Economist person with the stupid article.)

 If you mess up your school work for NaNo, you're being immature.

Other than that,  this is no one's business but your own.

Number 2:

Only serious, professional writers should be allowed to attempt a book?  By that notion, no group should be allowed to play football in an empty field unless they intend to be professional football players, right?  No one can paint a picture unless they are sworn to the secret society of artists.  Put that camera down if you aren't a professional!  And never mind that no one is born a professional.

You are never going to see the writing these people do, so how can it possibly affect your life in anyway?  Yeah, some publishers will be hit with submissions, but most of us know better, and we keep spreading the word.  Some of the books might hit epublication long before they should.  Don't go read them.

There.  Easy answer.  You never have to deal with it.

Oh, and 'greater than thou' author?  I hate your website and all the ads and the stupid promo stuff.  What?  Then don't go look at it?  Yeah, that's the point.  If you don't like NaNo, then stay away.  But don't tell others they haven't the right to join in if they want to because they are defiling the art of writing.

Grow up.

Number 3:

This has to do with people doing NaNo.  Let's look at an analogy.

You've entered a marathon with so many other people running, you can't even count them all.  You have no idea where they came from and what kind of preparation they've done, but that doesn't matter.  You are ready.   You get the go ahead and off you go.  You work really hard and you reach the first marker, proud to have made it, knowing you had a hard time getting there.

But you look ahead and there are people way ahead of you on the path.

OMG, that's so horrible and unfair (never mind how hard they worked to get there), that you immediately decide to stop running.

 

Yeah, I think you see the point.

Stop with the silly 'it's so unfair, they're cheating, it's de-motivating to see people with high word counts' crap.  How do you accomplish anything with an attitude like that?  Come on -- what others are doing has nothing to do with you.  Just because someone is running ten miles instead of five doesn't make your work (or theirs) any less difficult or important.  And a few years from now, you may well find yourself running the harder marathon because you are better trained for it.

Okay, now to my NaNo Stuff:

Despite some problems, I am doing well.  My Edmond kitty was very ill, and that has slowed me up quite a bit.  He's better now, but still not fully recovered.  Today I fell and hurt my hand, which is bruised and sore, my shoulder, my back and my foot.  Yeah, not in a good mood over that one. It is making it hard to work.

But yes, I am way out ahead of most of the runners, and no I don't have to worry about the word count.  I am really enjoying the work of writing Beware the Wrath of Bunny Hopper.  I keep finding her voice in unexpected spots and she's a lot of fun to write.  The story is already over the word count I expected it to end by, and I still have about 15 to 20k to go.  So yeah, doing well there. 

I'm having fun.  I hope the rest of you are as well!