Okay, I admit it. I gave serious thought to doing Nano this year. The idea of being able to produce 50,000 words this month was majorly appealing, particularly since I'm trying to wrap up my current WIP within the next few weeks. I could have used the momentum of Nano to get that done and get a decent chunk of the next project started as well. But then I remembered one important factoid.
My internal editor. Never. Shuts. Up.
Seriously, I've tried to muffle it, ignore it, even slap it in a pair of cement shoes and drown it in Lake Michigan. Nada. But you know what? I'm okay with it. I've learned that sometimes having the IE on all the time isn't necessarily a bad thing. Usually it means way fewer revisions for me, and less crater-sized plot holes that I can't dig my way out of later. Usually it doesn't disrupt my creative flow to the point I can't write, so I really can't complain too much. Bottom line, my IE and I have a wary truce. It tries not to block me and I try not to call it the souless spawn of Lucifer.
So this year, yet again, I'll cheer from the sidelines for my fellow friends and writers who are Nanoing away. Good luck to you all!
2 comments:
I was tempted to do NaNo this year for the same reason as you - to finish a WIP. But I've got one of those never-shuts-up internal editors, too. The only way to do 50k a month would be to either write by hand (the editor only works when I'm at a computer) or type so fast the IE can't keep up. Either way, I'd be spending Dec editing. So I decided to do my own mini-version of NaNo - half the word count & partner with the IE. Hopefully it will mean less edits in December. ...we'll see how it works. :)
Good luck, Ava! Actually, your plan sounds very doable. Hmm...now I'm thinking about it, cutting the word count and working with the IE would work out well for getting my WIP done. And you know, I never considered going the write by hand route. I still tend to listen to the IE when writing long hand, but it does seem to be a little less intrusive.
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