If you haven’t read Roald Dahl’s book of short stories, entitled The Umbrella Man, you should. You should, especially, read The Great Automatic Grammatizator. I’ve been considering NaNoWriMo, but I keep feeling this little niggle of desperation inside. What happens if, year after year, thousands upon thousands of would-be writers crank out entire novels in a month’s time? Well, it’s got to be a little like Knipe’s machine.
For those who haven’t read the above-mentioned story, the brilliant Knipe (a would-be writer, himself) invents a machine that automatically creates custom-made short stories and novels. These days, with all of the online writing classes available, the rules available in a-b-c order, and the methods drawn into neat little diagrams, writing novels could easily be programmed into a machine.
If I didn’t appreciate the enthusiasm involved in numerous writers frantically cranking out page after page of text, almost in a communal sense, I wouldn’t bother with it. I’d shrug in disgust (in attempt at masking that niggling feeling of desperation).
