: Re: How do I recover my confidence after a harsh writing group? Having majored in writing in my undergraduate studies, I spent lots of time getting critiques from my fellow students, some of whom

@Samaraweera193

Vote Up Vote Down

NaNoWriMo

Tens of thousands of lunatics collectively deciding to write an entire novel apiece in 30 days.

My hang-ups came from a different place, but I had the same apprehensions as you. I'm a coder; in the computer world, there is a right way and a wrong way to write something, and I kept over-analyzing my writing looking for an objective measure of elegance or perfection that doesn't exist.

When I participated in NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) for the first time, the quantity-not-quality focus did wonders for me. Not only did the volume of my writing increase, but (surprisingly) so did the quality, because I was forced not to over-analyze. After all, as long as you make your word count during NaNoWriMo, you can always edit out the garbage in December. ;)

It's probably a little late to try for 50,000 words this November, but small groups or individuals often do off-season NaNoWriMos in other months, and each summer there is NaNoScripMo (like NaNoWriMo but for plays/screenplays).

You can also use the same mentality outside of NaNoWriMo: take a period of a few weeks and focus solely on ridiculous word count goals, to the exclusion of all else. See how it changes your perspective.

(0)

Login to post a comment!