The Power of Writing with Abandon

Where are you as writers?How many people are writing—or have written—

a novel?

Has anyone done National Novel Writing Month—aka NaNoWriMo?

It all started with a group of over-caffeinated yahoos

Lessons: NaNoWriMo 19991. The biggest thing separating people from their

artistic dreams isn’t a lack of talent, it’s the lack of a deadline.

2. Writing for quantity instead of quality brings about both.

3. Enlightenment is overrated: it’s not worth waiting around for.

Lessons (continued)4. Being busy is good for your writing.

5. Plot happens: “Your intuition knows what it wants to write, so get out of the way.” -- Ray Bradbury.

6. Writing for its own sake has rewards.

An unbeatable way to write a novel

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50000

100000

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350000

Number of NaNo Participants

What is “writing with abandon”?

Writing with freedom …

Writing with verve …

Writing without fear …

Writing outlandishly …

Writing quickly …

Writing recklessly …

Breaking boundaries.

Literary history of writing with abandon

Stephen King writes 2,000 words a day every day of the year.

William Faulkner wrote 3,000 a day during his most fertile period and sometimes wrote 10,000 words.

Anthony Trollope wrote 2,500 words a day.

Kerouac wrote On the Road in three weeks.

Benefits of writing with abandon

“The faster I write the better my output.  If I’m going slow I’m in trouble.  It means I’m pushing the words instead of being pulled by them.”—Raymond Chandler

“I definitely think that if you can make peace with the fact that you will likely have to throw out 90 percent of your first draft, then you can relax and even almost enjoy ‘writing badly.’”—Karen Russell

Getting more ideas—faster– is good

“The real measure of success is the number of experiments that can be crowded into twenty-four hours.”

– Thomas Edison

“If you want a good idea, start with a lot of ideas.”

– Linus Pauling

Your brain on improv“In the shift to improvisation, a region of the

brain associated with careful planning and self-censorship became dormant, while parts of the brain connected to the senses—hearing, seeing, feeling—became especially lively.”

“A brain area linked to autobiographical storytelling also showed increased activity. When jazz musicians improvise, their brains turn off areas linked to self-censoring and inhibition—and turn on those that let self-expression flow.”

—Charles Limb, Neuroscientist

Exercise: Automatic Writing

Keep your hand moving.

Don’t cross out.

Don’t worry about spelling, punctuation, grammar.

Lose control.

Don’t think. Don’t get logical.

Go for the jugular. Don’t be polite.

Sharing QuestionsWhat did that feel like? How does it compare to

the way you usually write?

Did you discover anything surprising or different?

How might you apply this to your writing process?

Banishing the Beast: Your Internal Editor

Pep Talk from Kate DiCamillo

An example of the encouragement that NaNoWriMo writers get during our events

A way to expand the idea of an “editor”—not just someone who literally wields the red pen, but who figuratively stops you in your creative tracks

Read aloud

Writing PromptWho is/was your Bob?

Your editor can be internal or external, real or imagined—anything that discourages you from writing.

Describe your editor and how you’ve faced him, her, or it.

5 minutes

An especially meanInner Editor…

Sharing QuestionsWhat is the common thread between all these

“editors”?

If you have an editor that’s stopping you from being creative, how can you defeat him/her/it?

Does this all lead to publication—or just a lot

of messy writing?

Yes, writing with abandon can lead to publication

Hugh Howey“Through NaNoWriMo, I learned two invaluable lessons: The first is the importance of writing every single day. Gentle pressure applied constantly is an incredible force. If you work on your writing every single day, you can accomplish great things. It’s like climbing a mountain one step at a time; the key is never to stop. Never doubt. Never look back. Go onward.

The second lesson is that I write my best work when I write a lot. Piecing a novel together over a year or more, one paragraph at a time, with days and weeks off in-between, does not produce the same quality for me as writing full-bore. I want to write as breathlessly as readers consume the work. I want to live in my book and not leave until it’s done. This is the essence of NaNoWriMo.

Marissa Meyer“I now treat every novel as if it's a NaNo novel. I always start by making an outline and, when I feel that it's as strong as I can make it, I crank out a fast first draft. Of course it's most fun to be drafting during November, because then you get the rush of being in a community, and of being part of something bigger than just you and your novel, but sometimes the timing with publication and deadlines doesn't work out. So whenever I am writing that first draft, I aim to have it done in 30 days or less. I set word count goals and milestones for myself, just like NaNo does, knowing that at the end of those 30 days I'll have something that I can work with. That "something" might be a haphazard plot and clichéd characters, but that's still better than a blank page, and it gives me a jumping off point for revisions and editing—which, for me, is where the real magic happens.

Gennifer Albin“NaNo taught me what I needed to go from wannabe writer to novelist. Before I signed up I didn't know how to gain momentum with my writing because I was always falling victim to my inner editor. I didn't know how to follow through on a project to the end. Facing a 50k word count goal forced me to put butt in chair and write every day. And to my surprise each day became easier. I now employ that model nearly every month. Some months I still only get a measly 10k written, but in my most successful month, I drafted two novels, clocking a whopping 140k on the projects. NaNo for me is all about setting achievable writing goals and accountability, the two things I needed to learn most. And since my first NaNo novel in 2010? I've written 5 and a half novels.”

Q&A

Write with Abandon in 2014

Go to www.nanowrimo.org

Set up a profile

Define your novel

Discuss writing in online forums

Go to local write-ins

Write 50,000 words!

Validate your novel