"Better yet, DON'T write that novel."

[xDevilsEnvy]

Shes just being bitter about the whole thing. i didnt finish reading the artical because shes the one "writing a lot of crap". Shes a writer to and shes discouraged writing. How dumb. I bet she just dosent want competition. She says that writers are only going to publish bad books and if she honestly thinks so she should stop reading. -__-"

[Bea Bishop]

What the author of article and many other people who think they can write are wrong about, is that writing a novel isn't easy. It takes a year, or two, or TEN of planning. Therefore, that article is absolute garbage.

Whoever shows up on NaNoWriMo is there - no, SHOULD be there, if and only if they already have a great part of it planned out in their head, not including the minor subplot that they might think of while writing, not to mention they already should have read many books. I mean what is the point of writing a 50,000 word novel if you don't plan it out? Sure, some talents might just sit, get an inspiration and write half of the novel in first week or something, but its rare.

NaNoWriMo is a place to show your work in hope to get it published, or that at least a few of your friends or people on the Internet is going to read it, and to see how actually good writer you are.

*rant over* Sorry for that. ^^'

[Klaark]

"As someone who doesn't write novels, but does read rather a lot of them, I share their trepidation. Why does giving yourself permission to write a lot of crap so often seem to segue into the insistence that other people read it?"

Ah. Fancy that, a non-novel writer has an opinion on novel writing....Plus, her main b***h seems to be people trying to publish their crap, not so much writing it.

You've got 11 months to do nothing but read, big God damn deal if you do NaNo. She strikes me as the same brand of idiot that rants and raves over Twilight being the worst thing ever. She's got an excuse, though, she appears to write articles for a living, which means she's got to write something, whether it's s**t or not...kind of like NaNo itself.

[headstab]

I am very firm in the belief that it is impossible to be a good writer without being a good reader. You have to expose yourself to other people's ideas, styles, and viewpoints in order to get a better grip on your own in most any creative field and storytelling is absolutely no exception. So, while the wording is a bit harsh, I agree with the assertion that writing without reading comes off as a rather narcissistic endeavor. You can do as much to improve your writing skills by reading books as you can by actually writing them. Sometimes, reading can be even more effective.

This isn't to say I agree with the article entirely. Just sitting down and forcing yourself to write can result in blowing past mental blocks and even if you're a terrible writer, if you're having fun doing it I'm not going to s**t in your cornflakes. But nothing you produce during a single month with such arbitrary guidelines is going to be good unless you spend at least twice that much time revising it.

tl;dr: NaNoWriMo is an interesting gimmick and it might be fun, but I don't exactly see it generating heaps of quality content.

[ShySnowWhiteAnon]

Can't people read and write?

I read an average of eight books a week as well as completing college work at distiction level AND I still find time to sit down and write. I didn't have time to read the whole article but really it sounds like a bad case of sour grapes to me.

x

[the king come down]

Kiddo Seanchain

There were some bookstores and coffee shops where I used to live that were wonderful - they had sofas and tables and all sorts of people hung out and read.

Those are still around. Even the bigger bookstore chains have those. Books-a-Million has some chairs and Barnes and Noble has them where I live. I don't think it's so much that there are less readers, I think that writers are just popping up more and more while the reader population stays the same.

[Mischa Lune]

I don't think it's right for the author of this article to discourage writing, yet I do think she's right in some areas. People need to focus on revising their work, and be willing to learn from their mistakes and become better writers. Not many people would want to read something that got crammed out in one month without any revision. If a writer is deluded enough to believe someone would, they need to get a reality check.

I agree that it would be great to have something that promotes reading. More people should read. I remember there used to be great incentives at my elementary school for reading, and that's what got me started. My only question is, and I noticed a few people mentioned this already, why can't we do both reading and writing? I don't get this woman's argument. Nanowrimo can exist along with a month to cheer on readers. Maybe someone could start something that could also hook up with Nanowrimo that could say writers need to read, and more people in general need to read.

Instead of wasting time being bitter about writing, people need to promote reading.

[Sprig and Sprout]

Does it occur to people like that, people that say that writers are unneeded, that 1. it was a writer that wrote those books they're telling us to read, and 2. maybe some people don't write for others. Maybe the novels I'm writing are for my own pleasure and sanity.

[Teh Kyle-kun]

If no one wrote;

there'd be nothing to read.