All these folks doing nano make me nervous. Think about the collective brain frying that is going on. What name? Would he say it this way? Was the house green or blue in the last scene? Is she really Luke’s mother or is she really another layer of obfuscation in a virtual reality world? Knowing what little I know about myself, I know that I would stumble through my day running over pregnant women and geese with my tricycle† while trying to answer all the questions running through my head.
So I say it is up to us non-nano participant to keep our eyes open for the nano-nians among us and protect them from the worlds intrusions. Or is it protect the world from the nano-nian intrusion? Maybe it we should call them nano-ites. But that makes them sound like a Borgish disease taking over the world. Which reminds me, flu shots are this week. Make sure you all get one. I don’t want to get a virus on my mac.
Do you see why I don’t do NANO?
† This makes sense, trust me. At least it does in if you live up here.
What I like about Nano time is that it seems to divert all those who write and ask:
should I get an agent?
do I really need an agent?
what font should I use in a submitted MS?
how do I stop wasting time?
what food/booze/music is most conducive to inspiration?
how many words a day is considered productive?
do you really think writer x, y, z is any good?
what genre of fiction produces the most cash?
why does American bread/wine/coffee suck so bad?
when are we going to get Scrivener 3.0?
will I be able to keep the old icons?
what’s the Nano deadline, again?
A couple days ago I read an article by Laura Miller in Salon. I wanted to post it, but feared it might provoke ill-will, flame wars, consternation, dyspepsia, and writers’ block.
Then this thread appeared. Now the article can have a home. (Well, sort of a launching pad.)
I won’t bother with quotes. The title – “Better yet, DON’T write that novel: Why National Novel Writing Month is a waste of time and energy” – should be enough to persuade you to read it, or to avoid it.
“50,000 words of crap”. LOL. I started NaNo doing 1700 words on day 1. The next day I managed to write only 500 words – had to stop and restructure the 2nd half of the scene I was working on. I feel terribly guilty, but some days just aren’t 2K-word days.
Being both logical and English would not the answer to the 50,000 words be to write a stream of consciousness work.
Think Kerouac or Brett Easton Ellis with Psycho (What a crap book)
That way your riffing on about something unnecessary is artistic and tells you something moar.
You can knock out 50,000 words of unreadable trash over a weekend of takeaways, cider and good cough syrup. Just be sure to use unusual and vague words to confound critics and bump up the confusion.
I would suggest you create a good personal back story “its based on my early life but the names changed to protect the guilty” and then you can appear on Oprah with a harpoon. So anarchic.
I see her point, but at the same time it seems churlish to moan about a bunch of people trying their hands at a craft, and a tad presumptuous and patronising to suggest that all those writing should be reading instead, as though everyone taking part is an illiterate hoping for a blockbuster. After all, it cuts both ways - one of her arguments is that we don’t need to encourage more writers when there is already so much to read; and yet she could probably have read another chapter in the time it took her to write those rather mean-spirited column inches.
I haven’t entered NaNo, but there’s no reason for other people not to. In fact, it’s a very good idea. Regardless of its impact on literature, one way or the other, it is a communal activity; anything which brings people together in peaceful and co-supportive enterprise ought to be encouraged.
But you must admit that L&L is now so deeply awash in bug hunts, wish lists, and tech questions about Windows that we old (quite old, some of us) Mac folk – while wishing nothing but the best for Scrivener and ALL its users – might leap as nimbly* as we can aboard any thread which promised some of that old time regionalism.
Phil
As if to prove the point, on first pass that word came up “numbly.”
Well said, PJS. I was just trying to be a lil’ funny, and meant no harm to anyone who writes, in whatever venue. But still: according to Books in Print, in the year 2007, 43,000 novels were published in the USA alone. What we urgently need are more readers.
Absolutely, no argument here. But as long-time Mac- and L&L forum users, you should be well-aware that my purpose is to pop by, disagree with everything, sound a bit grumpy, and then run away again. It’s what I do, please don’t take it away from me.
Not to toot my own horn, but I make a mean loaf of bread. My sourdough starter is producing some fantastic loaves, and a roommate said my challah was almost as good as her grandmother’s.
That question predates the lin-dows version of scriv. I am not sure you should be allowed to comment on it!
To Druid’s point, it is hard to have fun with all the extra traffic. Maybe we should ask KB to set up a separate PHPBB forum for a “grumpy old curmudgeon scrivener support group”. I would nominate Mr D and the Phil-istine as the token members with KB as the lead curmudgeon.
You toot away Kido, everyone else does. And!! Never forget, shipmate, contrary to what others may infer, you are here, because, as a member of Scriveners crew, this is where you belong. Youre home now.
Unlike, ‘The Inferrers’, with their heads stuck up their arses, and living in the past, I, am a radical, no nonsense, kick arse, progressive embracer of the the future and the myriad challenges and adventures it presents us with.
So! matey, dont forget, youre here cos y`re a Scrivener Vic-K told you so.
Vive la différence
Vic-k
)
The lickle guy can carry on as usual. 
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