Turkeys

Did I mention before about how bad my NaNoWriMo thing is sucking? Because it bears repeating.

In my head, it’s a rollicking adventure story that ingeniously reinvents pop culture conventions and cliches, cleverly making light of the shallowness of these conventions while staying true to what’s great about these popular adventures and what makes them resonate.

In my Word document, it’s as if I were describing a television show I’d seen the night before, line for line, in my usual rambling with no sense of pacing, but I kept confusing it with comic books I’d read. I don’t know how real writers do it. It’s hard enough just getting the basics of plot to hold together into something workable; how is it possible to do that and add style to it?

But in the end, of course: so what. All the stuff I was saying about the process and learning and turning off the internal editor just to make something is just as true now as it was back when I believed it. The comment that’s always brought up to console writers — that every good writer has horrible first drafts and hardly anyone comes up with a masterwork at first go — is still true as well. And while it doesn’t guarantee that every crappy first draft has the potential for a work of genius, it does mean that a draft doesn’t really and truly suck until it’s published and released to the public.

I’m also realizing that I have no talent at all for segues. (Which until just recently I honestly thought was spelled “segueway,” but it’s not). So Happy Thanksgiving, everybody!