Guest Post: Silent Pages

Silent Pages is another guest from Write On!, a blog for teen writers and for teen readers.

I invited these talented teens to share a little about themselves, why they are participating in NaNoWriMo, pros and cons they see about the writing challenge, fun ways they are participating like write-ins or online support and what they plan to do with their novels once the month is over. (With parental consent for those under 18)

After reading this post, I am very glad to have Silent Pages as a guest on my blog.

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You can call me Silent Pages, I'm seventeen years old, and I've been doing NaNoWriMo since I was about twelve. I've also participated in/won Script Frenzy and Camp NaNoWriMo, and for the past two years I've been writing 50,000 words in fifteen days, instead of thirty.

In fact, last November I wrote two 50,000 word novels. Simultaneously. I'm currently revising one, and the other we shall never speak of again.

I think that last sentence says a lot about the process of NaNoWriMo. I'm a NaNo veteran. Mostly, I win — and defeat my mom, who's been my official rival ever since I started.

The question is, what do I win? What does anyone win?

After getting this question a lot over the years (from family, classmates, strangers I started rambling to in the street) I'm still not sure I have a legitimate answer.

There's the certificate. The web badges. The discounts on writing software, the bragging rights, and of course the gigantic bar of chocolate (now you know what the stakes are for Mom and I) but in the grand scheme of things, we don't seem to get a whole lot out of this crazy, hectic event.

Chances are, our NaNo novels are going to suck. Even if you decide to revise, they're going to take a whole lot of work. Is it really worth it to use up a whole month (and most of our sanity) on something that might land right in the trash bin?

But on the other hand, first drafts usually suck. Would it be so bad to get one out of the way? Even if your NaNo novel is the worst thing you've ever written, chances are you'll be able to find bits and pieces of usable material; gems stuck in the dirt, just waiting for a good polishing.

For thirty days, you were writing. Every day, no matter how busy you were. That might have been more than you were doing before. I think NaNoWriMo is what first got me writing on a regular basis. It's what got me to actually finish my stories, rather than fizzling out and moving on to something else.

Then there's the social aspect. The writing group my mom started is hopefully having a write-in on the first, and it'll be the first I've ever been to. I live in a rural area, where hard-core fiction writers often seem like a rare breed, so plunging into the challenge alongside the few who are around seems like it's going to be really cool. I'm also happily waiting for the word count updates, filling up my feeds on Twitter and assorted writers' websites. The word wars, the (pity) parties, and all the shared experiences. For one month, thousands of writers all over the world are going to be doing the same crazy, wonderful thing.

Which is very cool indeed.

I've got my rough outline for this year set. I'm dusting off one of my old secondary characters and telling her backstory in all its messy, tragic, literally insane entirety. By the end of it, she will hate me. But I'll have told her story, which is what I've wanted to do ever since I first wrote about her. I'll also have figured out the world of that series more. I'll probably launch into a round of revisions on the first book.

However my NaNo novel turns out, good or bad, I'll have my story down on paper.

After that, I'll start polishing.

- Silent Pages (www.probloguewriter.blogspot.com)