The
second week of NaNoWriMo is underway, and I’m doing much better out of the gate
than I have in past years. I’m usually a long way behind by now, but this year
I am only about a day and a half behind. This came from taking an entire
weekend off; by the end of the week, I should be fully caught up.
The
hardest part of NaNoWriMo for me has always been learning to turn off my inner
editor. I always want to go back and rewrite things as I’m moving along, because
I’m too much of a perfectionist. I need each scene to feel alive; I want each
line of dialogue to be a zinger, and I want each character to be a compelling
web of fears and desires.
Still,
the act of putting plot on paper at speed helps to push a novel forward. I have
been lost in the details in the months following NaNo each year, but that is
okay; the speed with which I cut out the majority of the work in November makes
it easier to focus on the finer details when the time comes to cut and add to
bring value to the overall manuscript.
If
you’re writing a novel this November, do everything in your power to turn off
the inner editor. You never know what word count you’ll achieve when you put
the tedium aside for a short thirty days, and focus on nothing but bringing out
the plot that lives inside your head.
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