Originally posted on November 30, 2011.
Today is the last day of National Novel Writing Month. For some, this calls for a glass of Champagne and chocolates. For others, it signifies the end of a rough, long journey. NaNo was a challenge for me this year. I hit the basic 50,000 word goal, but I fell short of my real goal for the month. It is bitter, it is sweet, but I walked away with a lot of pleasant memories and the foundations of a book.
I managed to acquire an interview with Kimberly AKA @kimberlyFDR. This is her first year at trying Nano.
To the interview!
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Greetings, Kimberly! Welcome to December the end of November. This is your first year doing National Novel Writing Month – Congrats on joining the hundreds of thousands who are just as insane
as you are. How did you find your first experience with NaNo?
It was exciting! I had previously (March to May 2011) completed an urban fantasy novel’s first draft and found that my normal writing speed was 1500 words per hour, but then I’d give myself the next day to add 500 extra words and edit the section as well. I can’t let things go unedited. The prospect of doing NaNo, which was a higher wordcount per day AND the challenge of not editing was daunting. When I originally went in, I was planning on being a rebel and actually just using the structure to write a 30,000 word novella. This novel had other ideas. I found myself pushing to hit the wordcount on the graph and even exceeding it. I found the fun competition between my writing buddies pushing me to see if I could pass them each day. And to get around my need to edit, I even made allowances. I’d hit or exceed the wordcount each night and then allow myself some editing time the next morning to clean it up. It worked for me and it proved that I can do this! I can do NaNoWriMo!
From what I understand, you started writing long before you decided to participate in
NaNoWriMo. Tell us a little bit about when you started writing and the things you
normally write about.
I’ve been writing my entire life, starting very young with short stories, plays, poems, etc. I got a Creative Writing minor at UNC and I’ve done short story publications throughout my life. I’m currently a media reviewer in my off-hours for three blogs, so I write about one to three articles a week for them. I did one (failed) novel when I was younger and then I wrote my first full-length urban fantasy earlier this year. This will be my second novel of 2011. I was happy to do shot fiction prior, but I like the expanded abilities of storytelling that novels provide now. I usually write urban fantasy, though I have dabbled in Southern fiction when I was younger since my writing career was shaped by Reynolds Price.
Like me, you were adventurous in what you wrote for NaNoWriMo this year. Now,
granted, I wasn’t quite as adventurous, but that is ok! At the risk of some blushing from
anyone reading this interview, tell us a little about what you wrote about this year.
For NaNo, I did a genderswap story that isn’t quite erotica, but it’s bordering on the elements in some sections. I’ll copy my novel blurb from the NaNo site–Alex, a womanizer, has sex with the wrong woman and she curses him, wishing he “knew what it was like for a woman.” Thus begins his genderswap journey as he slowly gains secondary female characteristics. With the help of his female best friend, Alex tries to deal with who he is becoming, while failing to find the woman who set him down this path. Along the way, he and his best friend are becoming closer and their friendship may become something more before Alex’s journey is over. (It’s become more a focus on transgender elements, feeling like you don’t fit within your own body and having an identity that doesn’t match the exterior.)
What inspired you to take the plunge and write this sort of story?
I read gender fiction (genderswap fiction and fiction that focuses on re-evaluation of societal gender roles), but I never considered writing it myself, certainly not towards a novel-length story, but that’s what NaNo provided for me and that’s what I did. I’m sorta embarrassed by it….but it passed 50,000 and the first draft will pass 65,000 before it’s over, so I guess it’s a story I needed to write for some reason. If nothing else, it’s help me become more comfortable with writing sexual scenes when usually I just fade to black. Perhaps that’s why I wrote it, to challenge myself to delve into areas I hadn’t before and see if I could do it.
What was the hardest part of NaNoWriMo for you?
Going in, the prospect of not editing frightened me, but I find that the rules apply only in terms of “don’t edit and ruin the wordcount goal for the day.” As long as you make the wordcount, or exceed it, editing isn’t the horrible thing that it’s made out to be. Get your wordcount first. Whatever else you do after that is up to you.
What did you like the most about NaNoWriMo?
The friendly competition, either between Writing Buddies or just a challenge against yourself. Being able to see where everyone else was in the process, as well as seeing the graph of where you were versus where you were expected to be each day made me exceed further than I imagined. It gave me extra motivation in order to get ahead on my wordcount.
What did you dislike about NaNoWriMo?
The discrepancy between NaNoWriMo’s official wordcount verification and my Open Office document. Last night, in order to get NaNoWriMo to verify that I had passed the 50,000 mark, I had to actually write an extra 1400 words. Open Office says my novel so far is 51,414 words and NaNo’s site verification says 50,122. I had heard about the inflation prior, which is why I tried to get an extra day’s cushion in for my wordcount, but had I not known that I would have been below the verification level when the 30th rolled around.
Is NaNoWriMo something that you would recommend to other writers? Why or why not?
I’d definitely recommend it because you never know what you can do until you try. Sure, 50,000 words in a month might be a goal that’s far beyond your reach when you first dive in, but give it a try. Even if you don’t meet the finish line in November, you can keep going a your own pace and meet the goal in December. Plus, the motivation and support that NaNoWriMo’s community provides pushes you forward and makes you want to succeed. All these people are writing alongside you. It’s encouraging!
Now that you’re on the other end of the month and NaNoWriMo has come to an end, do you have plans on doing anything with the story you’ve written?
Well, I have to finish it
My outline still has 8 more points on it (around 14,000 words) before the first draft is done. Even then, it’s just a first draft and will expand more once I go back in and fill out the scenes I summarized earlier in an attempt to just move forward. Once it’s been through multiple revisions and critique sessions, I have a list of a few agents and publishers I want to send it to. It’s quite unlike the strict genres that are outlined within the publishing marketplace, but I know there’s a readership for the story elements I wrote about, so I hope to find it a home somewhere.
We hear it over and over during November; Quantity trumps Quality. How did this
mentality make you feel while you were writing day after day? Was it something that
might have negatively impacted your general writing abilities, or was it a pleasant break
from the norm? How do you think this mentality might harm new writers?
I don’t exactly agree with the mentality. Yes, getting 1000 words down on the page is 1000 words you didn’t have, and even if you have to trash all of them, it allowed you to get past the block you might have had to get to the next plot point. However, I think you should try to write a story that has you intrigued enough that you want to see it shine. That way, you will be trying to write it at a higher quality than if you’re just shooting for an arbitrary wordcount and will put you in a better position when you go back to edit for the second draft.
If you could pick one moment from the month of November to be a cherished memory,
what would that moment be?
Honestly, I’d say when I got the verification that I had actually done what I set out to do. The fact that I surprised myself enough to exceed my former daily writing goals, that I had a story to tell and was able to tell it, and the fact that I was pushing ahead towards the finish line were all great motivators, but getting that verified “you did it!” was the greatest feeling. I love that my story isn’t over yet and that I can continue to work on it to get a first draft that I can edit over multiple revisions. NaNoWriMo is done, but I’m not.
No interview is complete without an odd question from the peanut gallery. You are stuck on a cruise with one of these two people: Sean Connery or Harrison Ford. You will take turns reading books to each other for an entire week. Which person would you pick for this and why? (Also, give us a list of a few books you’d want to read to your gentleman of choice.)
For strictly reading to each other, Sean Connery. He’s got a great voice
Can I take Harrison along for commentary and other chats? As for a few books I’d want to read to one or the other of the lovely gentlemen, most aren’t within the genre they’d appreciate, but perhaps a few:
1. The Promise of Rest by Reynolds Price (actually, all my Reynolds Price books)
2. Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides (because that should last us until we’re back at the dock and more!)
3. Mariette in Ecstasy by Ron Hansen (I still love that book, ever since college)
4. A few Elliott Roosevelt mysteries (because they’re good, fast reads with FDR!)
5. Salem’s Lot by Stephen King (a guilty pleasure)
6. And the entire Tales of the City collection by Armistead Maupin (my copies are well-worn, but they’ll travel well;)Thanks for the questions!