Momentary Pause

I just scanned this negative review of NaNo from the Sycamore Review Blog via the Writing Sya blog via retentivewrimo.

I've never honestly understood any reason to knock NaNo at all. The common critique is that it "won't make you a real writer." Oh, well, darn. I lurk the NaNo forums off and on and I gotta say - I don't see a lot of delusion that it will. It's like complaining that carving a Jack-O-Lantern won't make you a "real artist". Well, thanks there Mr. Art Person. We were all confused about the distinction. But I still get to play with knives, right?

Anyone who is actually conflicted about anyone else spending more time having fun writing rather than not writing really needs to put their ego back into check. I would say they're overly concerned with the motivations of people who don't really concern them.

Sycamore Mark goes into a lengthy parable about what it means to say, "I'm a novelist."

Well, here's something I was told once by a real novelist - if you want to write, just write. Personally most of my writing energy gets misdirected by my real job and other coding related hobbies. So NaNo is a great time to clear the decks and ... just write. That's why I don't really blog anything or code anything I don't have to while I'm trying to hit word counts. Mark notes that if "you're writing to show off how tortured or eccentric you can be, you're probably writing for the wrong reasons."

Well, if you're just writing to be known as a novelist - I kinda pity you. But again, it's not my concern.

I gots writing to do.