Monday, February 20, 2012

Does Pohl hate NaNo?

"When I wrote it was in bursts: an eighteen-thousand-word novelette all one night long, taking the last page out of the typewriter at noon and falling exhausted to sleep. It was not a bad novelette, but the way I wrote it was very bad. To produce so much so quickly and so exhaustingly makes it that much harder to sit down to produce again. The experience gives you the confidence that a great deal can be done in a short time, which encourages delay."

- Science fiction author Frederik Pohl
(from his autobiography "The Way the Future Was")

I would have to say that 99% of my writing has happened during NaNoWriMo. While I never banged out an 18,000 word novella overnight, nor skipped a night of sleep for writing, I have hit 10,000 words in a day during NaNo before. It is hard work for me!

That said, I do have to agree with both conclusions. It does give confidence that I can finish NaNoWriMo, which is a lot of writing in a month, but I also see myself procrastinating the other 11 months of the year.

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