Insecure Writers' Support Group November 2019

Image by Jonny Lindner from Pixabay

Hey, People. As usual, I'm a day late and a dollar short. I kind of forgot that yesterday was IWSG day. So, I'm slipping in the back.

The question for this month was: "what's the strangest thing you've ever Googled in researching a story?"

I don't know, but the medieval sex toys question is as good as any.

I'm kind of feeling depressed about my decision to pull the plug on the Carnal Invasion project. I left the characters in that Universe in an eternal cliffhanger, because it's doubtful that I'll be going back to it. I wanted to get back to the kind of writing that I'd been missing out on trying to keep up with the Carnal Invasion serial. I thought about perhaps doing it as a yearly NaNoWriMo project, but I don't know. It would probably turn out to be just bad writing because that's what I tend to get from NaNoWriMo.

Speaking of NaNoWriMo, I have a theory that the people who tend to enjoy writing that way also tend to be the sort of people who use outlines. I hate using outlines. I enjoy word count constraints for flash fiction because they force me to be concise. I dislike word count requirements on longer pieces. I like doing Camp NaNoWriMo because you can choose your own goal. I usually choose chapters. My chapters tend to average about 500 words. Camp NaNoWriMo works for me. NaNoWriMo does not.

The truth is, between writing my own stories, poetry, blog posts, and book reviews, I probably write at least the NaNoWriMo required word count most days. It just doesn't work for me to confine that all to one project. What comes out is garbage and I can't stand to look at it again. I looked at the NaNoWriMo project I did in 2011 to see if I could stomach editing it. No dice, it still sucked. I took a perfectly okay idea and what came out with the forced word count was something that no-one should read, ever.

One thing I've noticed with the advent of e-books is that novelettes and novellas, which had previously fallen into disfavor, are making a comeback, and I couldn't be happier. I could write and edit a novelette or even a short novella in a month. A full-length novel is something else again.

For those of you who are doing NaNoWriMo, power to ya! I had to finally admit that in all honesty, I really and truly hate writing that way. It is very likely that I won't do it again. I may see you at Camp NaNoWriMo, though.

~Cie~