Creativity Under Pressure

Andy's best friend is also a writer. Because I'm pushy and misery loves company, I tried a couple of times last month to talk him into doing NaNoWriMo and coming out to the write-ins. He's completely uninterested; it's okay, he's allowed to be wrong.1 But while talking about it the other day, he was saying (and I'm paraphrasing the exact words) that he thought writing ought to be a more organic endeavor, instead of hammered out to an abusive deadline.

I countered that I need the abuse because I feel like I have to be doing a million different things at any give time, and I always push creative writing to the bottom of my to-do list. For me, NaNoWriMo is a month to say This novel is the most important thing to me for the next 30 days. It's a beautiful reprieve from everything else going on in life.

However, he makes a good point: I assume most writers look at writing as tapping a creative part of their soul, and it should feel right. Natural. Organic. And no one is going to act as though every word written during NaNo sprang fully formed from their heart and is a perfect expression of their story. I wrote an entire section yesterday that blew big fat balls; it's awkward and forced and even as I was writing it I was saying to myself This is truly awful.

But it was written. I had barreled through that awkward and weird part of the story to move the character to something more relevant and interesting. When I edit, it'll be reworked or removed and replaced with something else -- but I don't need to worry about that right now. I was forced to get through that section of story by the threat of Write or Die2, and it's over. I added things to the story to get my character to another place, give her information she needs, and now I've got some interesting stuff to write about today.

I'm not arguing against his point or process -- for one, there is no singular process, and at no point did he say, "The way you write is stupid,"3 only that it wasn't how he writes. More important: if I wanted to argue with him, I know where he lives. I have his phone number. I could drive to his work and be like, "SELL ME STUFF WHILE I TELL YOU THAT YOU'RE WRONG." You get the idea.

What I am saying is that creativity can happen even up against the fervor of the NaNo deadline. That when you're sprinting to the word count, you can come up with things in a pinch that might not have occurred to you while ruminating gently over a cup of coffee. Characters come to life. Settings explode (sometimes literally).

I hate the expression "pressure makes diamonds" because honestly, I'm more of the opinion that pressure cracks foundations and crushes things -- but it's not like it doesn't also make diamonds, over a long time and under the right circumstances. Where NaNoWriMo might not be the right pressure for one person, it might be the diamond-maker for another.

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1. He knows I'm kidding. :D Also; unlikely he's reading this. August, are you reading this? Stop reading this!
2. I was doing this sprint while Andy and August were in the living room, and as Andy was explaining the program by saying, "It deletes words if you stop typing." August responded, "Why would you use this program!?" It was pretty amusing, because I could not articulate that I simply need the abuse.
3. And believe me, he would say that.
4. I'm going to talk about parenting again some day, I promise. I've got things to say about it still. :D