Entrevistas a três participantes do NaNoWriMo

Como prometido, segue-se uma série de entrevistas a três participantes do NaNoWriMo; o projecto decorreu durante todo o mês de Novembro, sendo que nos dias "checkpoint" (dias 1, 15 e 30) era enviado um conjunto de questões. As suas respostas encontram-se aqui reproduzidas com um mínimo de edição e na língua com que foram elaboradas originalmente (Inglês).

Penso que, no fim, as suas respostas traduzem muito bem do que se trata o NaNoWriMo. Entre diferentes dificuldades e preocupações, todas tinham o mesmo objectivo em comum: escrever 50000 palavras num mês. Agradeço-lhes a disponibilidade e simpatia com que responderam prontamente às minhas questões e, quem sabe, talvez troquemos mais impressões num futuro NaNoWriMo. ^_^

1 - Hello! Please introduce yourself.

S: Hello! This is my first NaNo, I'm from Kansas, USA. I'm 20 years old and currently a student.

A: Hiya! My name is Ashleigh, I'm 19 years old and I live in upstate New York. I've done NaNo for years but I've always chickened out or lost interest before I get to 15,000 words. This year I'm very excited about my story though, and with the help of my buddies I hope to be a winner this year!

M: My name is Mallory. I'm 24 and live in Halifax, Nova Scotia. I work in the maintenance department in a local hotel but I eventually want to get into library or museum work, or possibly something in the publishing industry. I have a LiveJournal at nightcat-hekasu.livejournal.com where I mostly rant about work, writing, and post sketches. This is my second NaNoWriMo. I also did it last year and won.

2 - Have you extensively planned your novel? What will it be about?

S: YES! I planned it to be a fantasy of sorts about an escaped evil demon thing that wants to conquer the world. And of course a rag-tag group of protagonists is out to save said world. 

A: I wouldn't say the novel itself is extensively planned, but I've spent a lot of time thinking about the story before November, which is a complete change from my normal NaNo strategy! It's based on a Dungeons and Dragons campaign. My husband is the Dungeon Master, so the story takes place in a world he has been developing for over 10 years; I play the female lead, and a friend of ours is the male lead.

M: I didn't do a whole lot of planning for this year's novel. I started out with just the image in my head of a classic detective with a sword and my main character evolved from there. I have a rough idea of how the story will progress and the day before NaNo started I did a few quick character outlines and did a phase outline of the first two chapters. 

The story itself is a mix of modern detective fiction and medieval fantasy. I've always loved the image of the trench coat-and-fedora detective and I've always wanted to create a character like that. I also have a background in medieval and Arthurian literature thanks to university and I love writing in that genre. By combining the two I get to experiment in a genre that I've always wanted to try (modern crime fiction) but I also have the comfort of another genre which I already feel confident in.

3 - How did your first NaNoWriMo day go and what was your overall mood throughout the day?

S: Kind of rough to be honest. My beginning wasn't pretty as it is something that I'm terrible at and didn't really plan much. 

A: I think my first NaNo day is going really well, I've had two word wars with two different buddies. I had never tried one before today, and I couldn't believe how much it helped me get those words on the page! Actually, having buddies in general is turning out to be a great motivator for me.

M: I started my first day right at the stroke of midnight. I managed to write a little over two thousand words before going to bed, and during the day I wrote another two thousand for a grand total of 4045 for my first day. This is a great personal success, even though I had fallen short of my original five thousand word goal. The story flowed surprisingly easy for me once I turned off my inner editor and stopped worrying whether or not the story was any good. I kept repeating the mantra of "don't be afraid to write crap" in my head. Once I allowed myself to embrace that it felt almost freeing, in a way. 

Overall, my mood towards the novel during the day was one of optimism. I didn't allow myself to worry about the quality and just focused on writing it down. Quality will come later, when I actually have something tangible to work with.

4 - What do you foresee will be your greatest difficulties regarding the completion of your novel?

S: Writing the ending and editing the beginning come December.

A: I think the hardest part will be simply getting to 50k. Kind of an obvious answer, but it's the truth! DND stories can go sour fast if you don't approach them a certain way, and I tend to give up quick if I think my story is turning out to be less than what I envisioned. Also, I've only ever written short stories, so my writing style tends to be...concise. I'm trying to see this as an opportunity to go into detail on all the cool things I can only give passing attention to in short stories.

M: I think the greatest difficulty for me will be my lack of planning. I'm a pantser by nature, but I've had months long stretches before where I get stuck on one scene and couldn't for the life of me figure out how to get past it. I'm hoping that a time limit will help me overcome any difficulties such as this.

I'm also trying to get over my fear of discussing my plot ideas and story in general with other people. With last year's novel I had a few people close to me openly mock my story and it had made me not want to share it with anybody. I regret letting that bring me down and kill much of the fun of writing something I loved. I refuse to let that happen with this year's novel. So, long story short, asking for help when I need it may be another big obstacle for me.

5 - What other activities will you try balancing while doing NaNoWriMo?

S: Mostly class, work, and university related activities. 

A: I have a husband who works very hard to keep us from living in a cardboard box, and his free time is limited. I want to make the most of our time together when he's at home. Other than that, November 3rd is my last day of work (I swear I'm not quitting to do NaNoWriMo!), so my life for the rest of the winter will likely be writing and enjoying married life. I could use a quiet patch in my life, so this will be nice. :)

M: This month I'm also in the midst of writing the fourth draft of last year's novel. I certainly don't expect to finish it this month, but I have promised some family and friends at least the first few chapters by the time Christmas rolls around. Otherwise I have my job, but I don't see that as being a huge problem for me as far as writing goes. I also have a few other writing projects on the go or want to start, but I'm still in the planning stages for those.

1 - Were you motivated to write today? How much did you write?

S: Not very...I actually didn't write anything on that day. It was during my "Slump" when My writing went down due to school and such.

A: Funny you should ask! Yesterday I sent what I had so far to the person who plays as the male lead in the DND campaign I'm basing the story on. He sent me an email this morning saying he stayed up all night reading it and that he thought it was amazing! That definitely kept me in the writing spirit for the rest of the day. I'm thinking, "Yay! It's not utter crap!" I have written about 2k so far, but the night is young and I really want to make it past 27k before it's over!

M: I wasn't feeling all that motivated to write on the 15th at all. I was sort of at the point where I was starting to feel burnt out by the story. I did however managed to write about 1800 words through sheer force of will.

2 - How is your novel coming along compared to what you envisioned in the beginning?

S: It was going a bit slow at that point.

A: A few days before NaNo I started panicking that I was going to run out of story before I hit 50k, but it turns out it's taking up much more space than I thought it would. I'm also really enjoying watching my characters develop into complex people. It's like watching your child grow up. :)

M: The story has taken a few unexpected turns, though overall I think it's heading towards an identical ending as I had envisioned when I had started. It's starting to parallel the Arthurian legends more closely than I had originally intended, which surprised me greatly when I had realized it but I think it works very well for the story.

3 - What main strategy are you using to push forward that wordcount?

S: My plan then was to just focus on what I needed to do for school and try to write as much as I could; I didn't have any classes during week four; so I knew that I could play catch-up then if I needed to.

A: I am keeping my butt in my chair and my hands on the keyboard. It's really important to me for a variety of reasons that I finish this, and I'm not going to let myself chicken out!

M: I have a few strategies. The biggest thing is that I've set up my word processing program (FocusWriter) to have a daily word target of 2000 words. Seeing the little percentage at the bottom of my screen steadily go up and up has been spurring me on to write even of days which I really don't feel like writing. On days were even that won't motivate me I pop into Write or Die and challenge myself in that program. In addition to that I've been promising myself to do something else once I reach my word goal for that day. It's usually doing sketches or playing a game. Today I'm promising myself to do character portraits if I hit my goal, for example.

I also went to a write-in last week during which I ended up with my highest daily word count yet (6k! Yay!). Being in a different place without the distractions of home went a long way to keep me focused on my word count, and the word wars that we did that day helped in a huge way as well.

4 - Do you feel there is a big difference between NaNoWriMo and the rest of the year regarding your routine?

S: Not too much - but I feel like I spend less time on social activities and such.

A: Heck yeah! I've never made such a serious effort to be better disciplined. I know for some people churning out thousands of words a day is nothing, but I have to work very hard to make sure I write something that I won't immediately want to delete, even if it is NaNo. It seems like my fictional characters aren't the only ones experiencing growth. ;)

M: Most definitely. With NaNoWriMo there's a whole community of people also working towards the same goal and with the time and word limit it always helps to engage my more competitive side, which in turn spurs me to write. For the rest of the year, though I write almost everyday, most of that writing is for making edits and changes to my existing work, which I don't enjoy nearly as much. I also don't have the threat of a solid time limit hanging over my head so I have a tendency to procrastinate.

5 - Do you believe you will be a NaNo winner?

S: Do I think that I will win? I think so - even if I am behind; as I said - I know that I would have plenty of time to catch-up during week four.

A: I have to believe it. There are no other options. I'm really good at making excuses for myself, but as I said, there are a lot of both simple and complicated reasons why I NEED to finish this year.

M: At this point with my word count (I managed to hit 40k last night, yay!), I'd be highly disappointed in myself if I didn't hit 50k. The big thing for me is being able to actually finish the story, which I'm sure will require another 20k-40k to finish. That's my goal for the end of the month, and that's the one I'm not so sure if I can keep. Here's hoping!

1 - Did you win NaNoWriMo? How did you feel when writing the 50000th word?

S: Yes! I felt relieved; ecstatic and otherwise just amazed with I finished it. It was right after I had finished a physics exam and only a few hours before the deadline - so I was definitely starting to get nervous about not making it.

A: I finally did it! After so many attempts I finally won! Those last one hundred words felt so surreal, I feel like I can do anything now. :)

M: I won with around 67k worth of words. When I hit 50k I felt rather relieved to have made it that far, but also a bit overwhelmed because I still had a lot of story left at that point. I then made it a goal to finish the book by the end of the month, which I managed to finish during the last day of the month.

2 - Is your novel any different from what you initially envision it? Are you pleased with the final result?

S: Somewhat; not much though. I am pleased - there are plot holes and such but when I go through the editing process it should get better.

A: I was honestly very surprised that it turned out as well as it did. Don't get me wrong, my inner editor is chomping at the bit to fix all of the many things that are broken, but overall, everything is coming together nicely.

M: It did turn out rather differently than I had expected. I went into it thinking that it would basically be a murder-mystery with some fantasy elements, but it turned into more of an action-adventure that edges into high fantasy. It also ended up being a lot more closely tied to the Arthurian legends than I had expected.

Overall I'm fairly pleased, but I think in rewrites I'll try to play up the detective novel aspect of it a little more.

3 - Were you able to write every single day?

S: No; Classes and such got in the way during week three.

A: There were two or three days where I wrote double the daily minimum so I could take the next day off and get other things done, but other than that I wrote every day. It really does become a habit, about three hours after I declared a vacation for myself I opened up Scrivener and started tweaking. I just can't leave it alone.

M: I wrote just about every day. There were a couple days where I either didn't have the time or felt completely burned out and didn't write. I think overall I only didn't write on three days, which I'm happy with.

4 - Were you able to successfully balance your other activities with NaNoWriMo or were they neglected?

S: Oh; they were somewhat neglected but my core activities of work and school were largely unaffected. My more social activities were sort of neglected but it was worth it...

A: I don't know how people are able to balance things like work, spouse and kids on top of NaNo! I just have a spouse, and I still feel like I could have done better about spending more time with him. I spent a little too much time doing Procrastination Disguised As Research, so it took me about 6-8 hours a day to meet my daily goal. And let's not discuss the enormous pile of laundry waiting to be done...

M: Creative-wise my other activities were a little neglected, but I don't think it was necessarily a bad thing. I didn't do any editing on my other novel at all so I decided to just wait until this month for that. I did do a fair amount of sketches, though, both for myself and for other NaNoers.

Otherwise it was a fairly quiet month for me overall, so nothing else got neglected.

5 - What would you do differently?

S: Maybe plan more; think through my plot holes a bit more...

A: I would be more productive with my writing time.

M: I wish I had done a little more planning for this NaNo. I had a lot of subplots that sort of fizzled out and went nowhere in this novel. Then again, that's what editing is for!

6 - What are the three main lessons you learned from this NaNoWriMo?

S: Keep going! I got behind during week three but managed to make up for it.l Don't give up - and don't use contractions like I am now. Try to silence your internal editor and not fret over plot holes.

A: The three most important things I learned are:

1.) It's okay to get it wrong the first time. This was easily the hardest lesson to learn, but it was the most valuable as well.

2.) I can plan story arcs ahead of time, but not characters arcs. The personalities of the main characters still had the core of what I initially imagined, but it really is better for me to let things like flaws, quirks, and values develop naturally as the story progresses. It makes them more three-dimensional.

3.) I take as much time as I give myself to write. If I have all day, I take all day, if I only have a couple of hours, that's all I need. So, dink around on the internet less and write more!

M: Hm, three main lessons...

1 - If I really put my mind to it, it's entirely in my abilities to hit 50k by the halfway point. That will be my goal for next year.

2 - Going to write-ins alone isn't as scary as I thought. I'm an incredibly shy person and almost didn't go to any write-ins, but I somehow managed to convince myself to go to an all-day write in. I ended up writing about 6k that day and met some awesome people, so next year I think I'm going to go to as many as I can.

3 - As far as writing goes, I can use a little more practice with plotting out my story beforehand. I'm mainly a panster, but I think that if I took the time to plot out at least the main story arc then I'd have an easier time seeing exactly where the story is heading.