Kirb

preach it

i think most speculative fiction novels these days are far too long, but i'm still gonna write my dream novel--without nanowrimo's help because fuck nanowrimo, 50k words isn't even a novel anyway (it's a novella)

100% agree

That's some seriously great advice!

The problem is that fledgling authors keep thinking NaNoWriMo will help them just sit down and write the damn novel, when the real reason they get the writer's block that keeps them from just sitting down and writing the damn novel is that they are not prepared. "Just sit down and write" only works if your writing style is totally improvisational stream of consciousness or if you intend to write mostly dialogue, which is what NaNoWriMo encourages. Otherwise it's just holding a shitty corporate meeting with no agenda every day with a bunch of people who don't want to be there, except you made them all up.

NaNoWriMo's emphasis on daily word count discourages the kind of meta-writing work that breaks writer's block, a process that works differently for every writer and which the writer has to figure out for themselves. I wish more writers would ask themselves: How do I get to know my characters? Do I discover them as they speak and think and act? Do I come up with a prompt so that I know where the story is broadly headed, even if the characters don't? Do I daydream some of each character's inner thoughts beforehand, so I know who they are and what they want before I attempt to communicate that to my readers? Do I take notes, write outlines and flowcharts, or does that get in the way?

That's the kind of prep work that separates a novel from a short story, IMO, and opens up the broader and more ambitious creative possibilities that a longform narrative project allows. Trying to beat a word count by cultivating daily productivity habits isn't writing a novel, it's attempting to piece together a novel one short story at a time.

real beautiful and true

"If you feel trapped and suffocated by the scale of the ideas you have, and by the difficulty of realizing them, DO NOT REALIZE THEM"

uh oh

The massive length of sci fi and fantasy novels when you were a kid was a product design choice.

I'm reminded of this itch.io "Open World Jam" whose deadline has been extended so much that submission period of the jam is about to reach 30 months soon.

Feels like an easy way to be smothered by a complete albatross of a project.

Wish I could nail this to my wall. I only got here from the other inflammatory post but I find this is much more the one I needed to hear.

Honestly! A lot of novels could have just been short stories. Think it was reminiscing on how bad a lot of like, genre novels I read as a kid (especially Star Wars EU) were because they had a solid beginning and end point but didn't really know what the fuck to do in the middle like, 270/300 pages that really solidified me on this.

i think of the fancy visual novel i'd like to do some day, and it's big 3 act story, and without any shame i am writing each and every one of its special, precious ideas in something on its own first.