Last year I made my first attempt at the NaNoWriMo challenge: write at least a 50,000 word novel from start to finish during the month of November. The resulting novel was garbage (and is still stuck in editing), but the experience was incredibly valuable.
There are plenty of posts out there about how to make sure you ‘win’ and get yourself across the 50,000 word finish line by November 30th. There aren’t many that tackle the question of whether you should even attempt NaNo in the first place, or, if you do, what you should do afterwards.
So, at the risk of alienating fellow NaNo writers, I’m going to suggest that you genuinely consider what you’re proposing to do. Does NaNo fit nicely with your plans and goals as a writer? Will that very rough first draft put you closer to your goal? Is this the best way for you to write effectively and efficiently?
In other words, is NaNo right for you?
Here are three posts to consider before you attempt NaNo (one of them is by a non-published author, so take his ramblings with a grain of salt…and a shot of tequila):
- Chuck Wendig: NaNoWriMo: The Debbil’s Adbocate (the good, the bad, and what the #$^% where you thinking?)
- Mur Lafferty: NaNoWriMo Reality Check (why you aren’t finished when you finish)
- My own thoughts after my first NaNoWriMo
And, yes, I’m planning on a sophomore swing at NaNo this year. And, yes, the first draft will be utter garbage.
And, yes, I’m totally fine with that.
It occurs to me that the NaNo novel one writes might best be described as a very powerful outline.
And that’s not a bad thing.
— c.
That’s kind of how it worked out for me.
I was able to come up with a massive amount of new, creative assets (characters, places, scenes, plotpoints, etc.) in the frenetic mind dump of NaNo. The draft was barely viable in its finished state, but when the dust settled, I realized I had a lot of very cool ideas that could, with a lot of work, be reassembled into something worthwhile.
Hey Scott:
Thanks for turning me on to your site – and sharing your knowledge of this brave new world. Your transmedia 2.0 slideshow will soon be making an appearance on my blog.
Do you advocate any particular media as the core storyworld? Does it matter? Can you share any general thoughts for screenwriters (my readership and my area of expertise)?
Cheers! (I too am going to NaNo this year)
Susan
Glad you found my little corner on the Internet, flattered you found the Transmedia 2.0 presentation interesting!
I believe that each medium has its own strengths. Ideally, you choose the core/initial offering/tent pole medium based on which medium will best serve the story and the world narrative.
Realistically, that decision may also be informed by other factors, such as budget or the need to reach a certain sized audience (though even then, I would advocate altering the story rather than subvert the narrative experience to non-narrative considerations).
To put it another way, it doesn’t matter which medium you chose, but your choice matters greatly (so choose wisely).
I must profess to having zero experience with screenwriting, so my comments must, by definition, by general.
1) Transmedia is another way of telling stories, so the fundamentals of storytelling still apply.
2) Transmedia is about building a world in which a story (or a set of stories) exist. In this regard, the world and its stories have a mutually dependent relationship. The stories should support the world and encourage audience exploration of it across a range of mediums. The world should provide a stable foundation to coherently support existing and future stories.
3) I recently shared the following on twitter: “Not all entertainment should be transmedial. Not all transmedia should be participatory. But put them together, and it’s magic.” Use transmedia judiciously; choose your mediums carefully; court audiences to participate meaningfully. In short, just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.
Regarding participatory entertainment, I would suggest that writers, producers, and entertainment companies view audiences as capable of constructively contributing to an entertainment property (and not just take the role of a passive, paying consumer). Audiences can, literally, co-create value.
At a recent panel from Social Week L.A., Henry Jenkins made the following point: fans appreciate entertainment, where appreciate means both, ‘they like it,’ and, ‘they increase the value of content’ (Jenkins shares additional thoughts and a video of the panel on his blog).
That resonates deeply with me.
Participatory entertainment is neither choose-your-own-adventure nor story-by-committee. It’s a spontaneous, improvisational conversation both within and about an entertainment world. And all it takes to start the conversation is for content creators to simply stop talking long enough for them to hear what their audiences are saying.
Hope that helps – happy to share more, but allow me to also direct you to Julie Stratton’s Transmedia Resources. She’s been collecting tons of links, articles, and references from many of the thought leaders in transmedia (academic, artistic, and advertising alike). Lots of great stuff there, and it won’t take you long to find the transmedia veterans who have been at this for years (disclosure: I’m not one of them – I came at transmedia just last year as a result of my interest in collaborative commercial entertainment!).
See you in the NaNo trenches!