If you've been thinking of trying NaNoWriMo, but feel unsure of your ability to come up with a good enough idea or to keep on task to finish, read this testimony by the founder and director of the International Association of Journal Writing, Ruth Folit:
Fast
Fiction in Action: My Experience of Writing the First-Draft of a Novel with
Denise Jaden
When I
first read Denise Jaden's book Fast Fiction: A Guide to Outlining and
Writing a First-Draft Novel in Thirty Days and then interviewed her for an
IAJW telechat in April of this year, I was fascinated by her confidence that
someone with no prior experience could write a first-draft of novel in two
months. I hadn't ever seriously thought that I would or could write a novel. I
had written journal entries for more than 40 years, and I've written scores of
articles for newsletters and posts for blogs during the last fifteen years, but
I've never written fiction. I've never taken a creative writing class. Ever.
The idea
of taking the Fast Fiction class with Denise this summer was so intriguing that
I signed up. I had no trips planned in the second four week period, so I
figured it was the right time to try my hand at writing the fast-draft of a
novel.
The first
day of the class, there's a group phone call and upbeat group energy begins.
This class is about the process—not as much as about the content of your
story—although some general sharing of content occurs. I had no—absolutely
NO—idea about the story line before I began the class. Watching it develop was
part of the magic.
Denise asks that you spend 20 minutes to one hour a day on the first month.
Every day she gives you a bite-sized piece of background information followed
by an assignment. You'll learn, for example, how to:
·
brainstorm story ideas
·
identify how we each best come up with creative
ideas
·
create characters
·
develop setting and themes
·
build a three-act structure
She offers information about logistics (like experimenting with and finding the
most productive time of day and environment for you to brainstorm or to write)
as well as feedback and problem-solving when you are stuck.
By the
end of the first month you have a firm starting point to write. You don't
necessarily have the whole story planned out, but you have a good running start
and permission and encouragement to let the writing process proceed creatively
and organically so that if surprise twists and changes in the plot appear as
you write, you simply go with them. Denise and your fellow group members are a
sounding board, listening and reacting to triumphs, frustrations, and questions
of process. The group environment is actively encouraging—buoying you past
barriers that might otherwise stop you dead.
The
second month fingers meet the keyboard every day. For the next 30 days the
assignment is to write 2000 words daily. Denise is firm. Don't miss a day. Keep
the momentum going. The reminder is that this is a first draft. It's quick
writing based upon the solid planning that you had done the previous four
weeks. Denise claimed that it would take between 1 and 1 ½ hours daily, but it
took me almost two hours each day for me to write 2000 words. Some days I only
got to 1500 words and I couldn't spend any more time on the project.
Denise
herself has written more than a half a dozen books using her method. (And two
are published by Simon and Schuster.) She anticipates the patterns during the
30 writing days where the energy and momentum is high and where the process may
be bumpy and slow-going. She's a cheerleader throughout as well as a player on
the field; she wrote the first-draft of a novel along with us during the last
four weeks.
I did
have two days in the second month where I missed writing entirely. During those
days I did, however, think about the next steps of the story so that I stayed
in the flow, and caught up the next few days, so that I did have more than
50,000 words written by the end of the month—a little short of the 60,000 word
goal, but within the range of a full-size novel.
Denise
tells us that the next step will be revision—which is not part of this class.
And she emphasizes the need to let the first draft sit for at least a couple of
weeks, if not longer if you'd like, before revising. The point is that now you
have a solid start, a rough draft that was written quickly and so has freshness
and momentum. It is like the rough carving out of a block of wood or a piece of
stone for creating sculpture. You've created the large cuts that shape the
piece. The next steps are the finer chiseling, refining and sanding down to make
it into a polished piece.
The
writing process was surprisingly empowering for me on a couple of levels:
1. The
process felt similar to writing in my journal. Although most of what occurred
in the story didn't happen to me in my real life, I often thought back to a
conversation I easily could have had with my sister, or my parents or my own
children or a friend when I was in high school. I imagined myself there at the
scene I was writing and the story flowed easily and unfolded in front of me
with less effort than I ever imagined.
2. The
story I wrote had parallels to my own personal struggles. In writing this
particular story the protagonist overcame some of the issues that I've worked
hard in real life to overcome and continue to work on. The writing bolstered me
emotionally. I knew first-hand the protagonist's pain and then felt her triumph
in making the changes, her solving the problems, and having the family support
and guidance that I in reality didn't have.
If you
have even a sliver of interest in writing a novel (and November is the National
Novel Writing Month –NaNoWriMo—during which hundreds of thousands of people
participate) this is an opportunity that you should jump on now. Denise is the
ultimate sherpa to guide you on climbing to the top of this mountain.
Needless to say, I'm thrilled by Ruth's testimony. If you'd like to find out more information about the course, or to sign up, drop by the registration page:
http://www.iajw.org/products/item80.cfm
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