Interview: Stephen Blackmoore on NaNoWriMo

Stephen Blackmoore is curiously without biography. I couldn't be bothered asking him, because if he was remotely interesting, he would've posted a bio on one of the two blogs he runs/contributes to (a man with no bio and two blogs is clearly compensating for something).

He loves writing about criminals at L.A. Noir, much more than he likes writing about himself at Slap the Monkey (I told you so). He also writes short crime fiction, the shortest of which can be sampled at Flashing in the Gutters.

He's also a cheating cheater, like his alchy friend Daniel Hatadi. Both flouted the rules of NaNo by using the challenge to work on works-in-progress. I tell ya, if you can't take an anonymous, prizeless internet challenge to write the first draft of half a novel seriously ...

The curse of the NaNo is bittersweet, though: he's about 35,000 words short of the target this year. He wrote more for this interview.

How many times have you participated in NaNoWriMo, and what was the result?

Three, I think. Though only once seriously. I did my 50,000 words and let me tell you, the end result was unpublishable crap. Really, truly horrendous. But then all rough drafts are, so I might do something with it later. Like line the birdcage.

What value do you place on completing NaNoWriMo?

That's kind of a tough one. I'm doing Nano more as an enforced deadline than to try to reach 50,000 words. It's less about Nano and more about my personal writing goals.

Nano has been useful because it's an outside impetus and a focused deadline. If I were in the middle of a rewrite or other writing projects I probably wouldn't do it. But for completing a rough draft it's useful. It forces me to sit down and get the work done and be surrounded by a bunch of people trying to do the same thing. Just knowing that I'm not alone is a big help.

How much time will it take to write 50,000 words? How do you divide the workload across the 30 days?

I did it in 24 days the one time I completed. Whether I hit 50K [this time] remains to be seen. Frankly, I don't think it's very likely. I'm way behind that goal (since I'm not counting the wordcount I had before November or I'd probably have aced it by now), but since I'm trying to write something cohesive that I can do something with, I'm not too worried about it.

Do you spend any time editing/redrafting the work-in-progress during the month?

Since I'm doing this with a particular goal in mind I'll sometimes find myself going down dead ends and having to double back. I don't really delete anything, though. Just mark it for deletion later and move on.

I save most of my editing for rewrites. As Hemingway said, "The first draft of anything is crap." I like quoting Hemingway because it makes me feel smart and literate. Provided that I ignore the fact that it makes me look pretentious and arrogant. Which, for the record, I am.

Do you plan to (eventually) submit the result for publication? If so, how much additional work do you expect to do?

I do. I expect to do quite a lot rewriting before it goes anywhere. Once I get the words "The End" done on the rough I'll be tearing the whole thing apart and writing it over largely from scratch. Right now it resembles a leaky boat put together by a gang of monkeys on crack.

What do you get from participating in NaNoWriMo that you couldn't get from setting your own writing targets?

Something between a nagging and a cheering section. Nano gives it the feeling of winning a bet. It's a psychological boost.

In the grand scheme of things, though, I'll get a lot more of a psychological boost out of saying "Why, yes, I WOULD like a 3 book deal, thank you for asking." And I'm only going to get that by writing the best book I can, regardless of any artifically imposed deadlines.

Would you recommend the experience to other writers, published and unpublished?

Unpublished, absolutely. Nano does at least two things exceedingly well.

One, it forces a writer to get their ass in the chair and stay there. It forces them to work through their blocks, and figure out strategies for whacking their creativity into submission. Nobody gets a free pass.

The second thing is that it shows people that they can do it. Now, yes, I agree some people should not write. Ever. But the biggest hurdle for good writers is the perception that they can't do it. A lot of fantastic books have never been written because someone with a lot of talent and the belief that they're not good enough didn't try.

If you were in charge of NaNoWriMo, what rules/parameters would you set?

Oh dear god. None at all. It is what it is and I certainly don't want to run something like that. I think some people take it too seriously, but that's their problem not the problem of the people running it. It's fun and a challenge and I can only hope that enough people take it in that vein to keep it going the way it's been going.

His response to being interviewed?

Happy to oblige. I am nothing if not full of horseshit and opinions.

He said it.