Steven Hildreth Jr.'s Blog, page 6
December 1, 2011
NaNoWriMo.
The acronym stands for NAtional NOvel WRIting MOnth. It is a mad dash for aspiring novelists to write fifty thousand words from 1 November to 30 November, or roughly about 1,667 words per day. When broken down into daily word count, this may not sound like much, but then you have to factor in life events, lack of motivation, and the infamous writer's block. The stats don't lie, either--according to UCLA, the international completion from 1998 to 2008 was only 16% (which places attrition at 84%, which is roughly the number I computed when I did the math on my own for the 2010 NaNo completion. You can check out the article at http://www2.uclaextension.edu/writers...). That's higher than the drop-out rate for Ranger School AND BUD/S, for those of you who are military minded.
I first came across NaNo via my friend and writing mentor, Doug Wojtowicz, who is a ghostwriter for the Mack Bolan pulp series. He suggested I undertake the challenge, and elected to give it a shot. I had not written anything significant in the past five years at that point. Every novel attempt I had made sputtered out five or six chapters in, at best. I figured, "Why not? What do I have to lose?" So, I hashed out a skeletal plot in my mind, ran it past my colleagues, and prepared myself.
It turned out much better than expected--I wrote roughly 56,000 words in November of 2010 and got about thirteen chapters into my novel. Wow! I thought I had already peaked as a writer and that publication was beyond me, but NaNo taught me that I still had the energy and motivation to write that I had in high school. I just had to set aside my penchant for perfectionism long enough to produce a manuscript.
I wrote 80,000 words in The African Catalyst between NaNo 2010 and NaNo 2011, mostly due to the usual lack of motivation, but I geared myself up for it this go around. I finished The First Bayonet, made some changes to the chapters and characters, and prepared myself. But I quickly found out that being a full-time college student and part-time worker proved to be much more challenging than the circumstances I was in the year before.
Sure, I had some good days where I would write three thousand or so words in a day. And I had a trio of epic writing days where I covered 15,000 words. But I also had other obligations to attend to, and school and work were constant obstacles. Getting home at 2100 on most days tends to sap the energy to write. But I pressed forward and made up lost ground when I slacked off.
The final push came at 0250 hours, when I was visiting my friends in El Paso. They had already gone to sleep; I was on my second cup of coffee and was pushing to make my goal. Unfortunately, Open Office counts quotation marks as words, so when I placed my manuscript from the month in the verifier, I was shorted a thousand words. So, I began the push. For fans of the game Metal Gear Solid 4, the scene where Snake is traversing the microwave hallway and struggling to put one foot in front of another is the fictional equivalent of how I felt mentally when I wrote those words. But, forty-eight minutes later, I was verified as a two-year consecutive winner.
So what is the point of NaNoWriMo? It teaches the writer to always make time for their work, for their passion. It teaches writers to take an hour or two out of their day to dedicate to their craft. It teaches the writer to not allow the drive for the perfect novel to interfere with the drive for a completed novel. It teaches the writer that it's okay if the first draft is terrible, as that's what post-production is for.
But most of all, it tests dedication to the love of the art. Many people abandon the pursuit early on. Others make a push, but figure out mid-month that the odds are stacked against them, and thus they abandon it. That leaves two classes--those like me, who found ways around their busy schedule to complete the challenge, and those like my friends Vicky and Amber, who knew that they would not make 50,000 words but continued to push until the very end.
The members of the aforementioned groups are the true writers, those most likely to see their work in a bookstore someday, or those who just find pure enjoyment in the art of writing and will continue to engage in it until their hearts stop beating. These are the mental survivors who will not allow anything to get in the way of accomplishing their objectives, and if faced with imminent failure, they will go down fighting.
In short, NaNoWriMo is a gut check. Not everybody can hack it. If somebody finds themselves in one of the first two groups that abandoned the pursuit before the end of the month, then they may want to reevaluate whether or not they care to carry the title of "writer." If the answer is, "Yes," then they need to seek out those who have won and ask them what their secret was, what drove them to keep going.
For me? The answer is very simple, and obvious to those who know me well.
I just hate to lose.
I first came across NaNo via my friend and writing mentor, Doug Wojtowicz, who is a ghostwriter for the Mack Bolan pulp series. He suggested I undertake the challenge, and elected to give it a shot. I had not written anything significant in the past five years at that point. Every novel attempt I had made sputtered out five or six chapters in, at best. I figured, "Why not? What do I have to lose?" So, I hashed out a skeletal plot in my mind, ran it past my colleagues, and prepared myself.
It turned out much better than expected--I wrote roughly 56,000 words in November of 2010 and got about thirteen chapters into my novel. Wow! I thought I had already peaked as a writer and that publication was beyond me, but NaNo taught me that I still had the energy and motivation to write that I had in high school. I just had to set aside my penchant for perfectionism long enough to produce a manuscript.
I wrote 80,000 words in The African Catalyst between NaNo 2010 and NaNo 2011, mostly due to the usual lack of motivation, but I geared myself up for it this go around. I finished The First Bayonet, made some changes to the chapters and characters, and prepared myself. But I quickly found out that being a full-time college student and part-time worker proved to be much more challenging than the circumstances I was in the year before.
Sure, I had some good days where I would write three thousand or so words in a day. And I had a trio of epic writing days where I covered 15,000 words. But I also had other obligations to attend to, and school and work were constant obstacles. Getting home at 2100 on most days tends to sap the energy to write. But I pressed forward and made up lost ground when I slacked off.
The final push came at 0250 hours, when I was visiting my friends in El Paso. They had already gone to sleep; I was on my second cup of coffee and was pushing to make my goal. Unfortunately, Open Office counts quotation marks as words, so when I placed my manuscript from the month in the verifier, I was shorted a thousand words. So, I began the push. For fans of the game Metal Gear Solid 4, the scene where Snake is traversing the microwave hallway and struggling to put one foot in front of another is the fictional equivalent of how I felt mentally when I wrote those words. But, forty-eight minutes later, I was verified as a two-year consecutive winner.
So what is the point of NaNoWriMo? It teaches the writer to always make time for their work, for their passion. It teaches writers to take an hour or two out of their day to dedicate to their craft. It teaches the writer to not allow the drive for the perfect novel to interfere with the drive for a completed novel. It teaches the writer that it's okay if the first draft is terrible, as that's what post-production is for.
But most of all, it tests dedication to the love of the art. Many people abandon the pursuit early on. Others make a push, but figure out mid-month that the odds are stacked against them, and thus they abandon it. That leaves two classes--those like me, who found ways around their busy schedule to complete the challenge, and those like my friends Vicky and Amber, who knew that they would not make 50,000 words but continued to push until the very end.
The members of the aforementioned groups are the true writers, those most likely to see their work in a bookstore someday, or those who just find pure enjoyment in the art of writing and will continue to engage in it until their hearts stop beating. These are the mental survivors who will not allow anything to get in the way of accomplishing their objectives, and if faced with imminent failure, they will go down fighting.
In short, NaNoWriMo is a gut check. Not everybody can hack it. If somebody finds themselves in one of the first two groups that abandoned the pursuit before the end of the month, then they may want to reevaluate whether or not they care to carry the title of "writer." If the answer is, "Yes," then they need to seek out those who have won and ask them what their secret was, what drove them to keep going.
For me? The answer is very simple, and obvious to those who know me well.
I just hate to lose.
November 27, 2011
November 22, 2011
Welcome!
I'm Steven Hildreth, Jr. A little about myself--I was born in Idaho, and my dad joined the Army when I was ten. We moved around, and lived in California, Texas, Arizona, and Texas again, all before I joined the Army myself and served as an 11B (infantryman). I participated in Operation: Iraqi Freedom in 2008 and 2009, then left active service in early 2010. Since then, I have been a college student and aspiring novelist.
It has always been my dream to write stories of derring-do, stories filled to the brim with firefights, car chases, and femme fatales. Next month, I shall realize that dream by publishing "The First Bayonet," a novella I wrote earlier this year. For the past year, I have been working to complete my first novel, The African Catalyst, and I hope to have that completed by Spring 2012.
I want to thank my friends for supporting me in my literary endeavors, and I welcome them and any and all other fans to my blog. Here, you will find articles about writing, journals about my own odyssey to completion and publication, and excerpts from my work.
Welcome again, and glad to have you around!
-Steven Hildreth, Jr.
Tucson, AZ
November 22nd, 2011
It has always been my dream to write stories of derring-do, stories filled to the brim with firefights, car chases, and femme fatales. Next month, I shall realize that dream by publishing "The First Bayonet," a novella I wrote earlier this year. For the past year, I have been working to complete my first novel, The African Catalyst, and I hope to have that completed by Spring 2012.
I want to thank my friends for supporting me in my literary endeavors, and I welcome them and any and all other fans to my blog. Here, you will find articles about writing, journals about my own odyssey to completion and publication, and excerpts from my work.
Welcome again, and glad to have you around!
-Steven Hildreth, Jr.
Tucson, AZ
November 22nd, 2011
