Recently I went to Orycon and I went to a panel with an agent and editor. And during the Q&A I asked if the agent saw a spike in submissions after NaNoWriMo and before I could even the finish the question his eyes were rolling. He said December sees a definite increase of submissions, many of them being people's all too recently finished NaNoWriMo novels.
You may think your NaNo looks like this:
But in all likelihood it's closer to this:
Don't despair though! With a few months off and some concerted effort you may just wind up like this:
That's where NaNoEdMo comes in. It takes place in March, which means you HAVE to drawer that book for three months. Don't look at it, don't think about, just ignore the crap out of it until March! Then in March, pledge to edit for 50 hours. Yes, 50 hours! And depending on how much of a hot mess your rough draft is (and that's exactly what a NaNo novel is) you may need more. Whatever you do, resist the urge to submit it ANYWHERE. Resist the urge to inflict it on your friends and family. Because you don't want to be THAT author.
The point is to give yourself perspective on the work. Which is something we should ALL do.
And even if you didn't participate in NaNoWriMo you can still sign on for NaNoEdMo and edit that work you've been meaning to. Admit it, you have a few pieces that you haven't got around to yet. I know I have an editing backlog that is clamoring for attention.
So, are you on board?
2 comments:
I'm surprised how many people know about NaNoWriMo and participate in it. I've had people show up at my writing groups and talk about being hooked on it, but I'm starting to hear hourly employees in the workplace, and people out at restaurants - the "man on the street" discussing it. I hardly knew anything about it a few years ago, and now it seems everyone knows about it and many join in.
I feel that agent's pain. :D
Never tried NaNo but I've written a novel in under a month. Once. Unintentionally. Don't know if I'd want to do that on purpose.
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