Lili Wilkinson

I know I already did this rant, but I’m not quite finished.

A few of the NaNoHaters have been begging for us to pay as much attention to reading and readers as we do to writing and writers*. And, um, we do. More, in fact. I’ve just spent the last eight years working in an organisation that does just that.

Here in Australia we have the MS Read-a-thon, the Reader’s Cup and the Premier’s Reading Challenge. There are Summer Reads and One City One Book programs all over the world. There’s Edinburgh’s Carry a Poem campaign. There’s BookIt! and Reading is Fundamental and Reading For Life and Read Across America. There are interscholastic Reading Olympics. Jamaica has a National Reading Competition. Hawaii has a Celebrate Reading Day. 2012 is Australia’s National Year of Reading. We have Book Week and so many readings, panels, launches, festivals and book clubs that even the keenest reader could not possibly participate in them all.

At the moment the Inky Awards are on – Australia’s only teenage choice book prize. It’s an award for readers – readers get to select their favourite books from Australia and overseas. But my favourite part of the Inkys? The part that makes me proudest for bringing to life? The Inkys Creative Reading Prize. Which not only celebrates readers, it gives them an active role in the creative process. Readers make a creative response to a book they love – in any format they choose, whether it be fan fiction, music, video or cake**.

I’m sure they don’t mean it, but the journalists*** ragging on NaNoWriMo kind of sound like they’re saying that only True Artists are allowed to be creative, to make things, and that the role of the plebs is just to consume their output. I also find the inability to separate the dirty business of making money and being “famous” from the sheer pleasure of creating something out of nothing, a little disturbing to say the least.

Reading a book or watching TV or seeing a play is like breathing in. Writing, painting, playing, sewing, baking – that’s all breathing out. Human beings need to do both. Not just artists. Not just journalists. Everyone.

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*And let’s face it, the participants of NaNoWriMo are NOT the ones we should be trying to get to read more. They read plenty. That’s why they write.

**There were TWO cake-related entries last year. Om nom nom.

***Also. I’m sure I don’t need to point out the journalistic hubris of whinging in public – in print – about how other people’s writing is a waste of time.

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So I finished NaNoWriMo, with only two crying tantrums (thanks to friends and loved ones for hugs and patience) and most of my sanity intact. November is a hard time of year, particularly in Australia, when things are warming up and everyone is racing towards the end of term. I had about a zillion other things to do this month, and they all (more or less) got done.

I’m pretty happy with my 50 077 words. I mean, they’re all rubbish, but it’s a rubbish first draft that I think I can probably wrangle into something a bit better. First job though, is to stick it in a drawer for a couple of months and GET MY CHEER ON.

So yesterday was the half-way mark for NaNoWriMo.

I’m on track, with 27 000 words under my belt. It’s certainly the most I’ve ever written in such a short time. I’m not sure if any of it’s any good, but I think some of it will be salvagable. I’ll need to put it in a drawer for a month or so and then spend some serious time reworking it, but as I always say, it’s much easier to turn a crappy story into a great story than it is to turn a blank page into a great story.

But I have to say I’m kind of enjoying the pressure. I like only having to write a small amount each day (1667 words). I like being able to compare my progress with other people (I am a competetive little monster). I like the idea of a REAL deadline, no extensions allowed.

And I really like updating my word count at Nanowrimo.org and seeing the blue line get a little longer each day.

When I was in the UK I read an article in one of the Sunday magazines. And like the very best lazy-Sunday morning reads, I thought – that’d make a great book.

So I’ve put the murder-mystery-in-a-natural-history-museum on hold for a month, and am delving into NaNoWriMo – National Novel Writing Month. The goal is to write a 50 000 word first draft in the month of November – 1667 words per day.

So Michael (who has also signed up) and I headed down to the Great Ocean Road for a few days to get some serious, internet-free, no-distractions writing done.

pretty place makes pretty writing?

I know there’re some days this month where I won’t be able to get any writing done at all, so I wanted to get a good head start. So this is the morning of Day 5 and I’m sitting on 10 715 words. Not very good words, I admit.

Back to it!