Okay, so NanoWrimo is coming and I'm hoping to churn out a 50,000 word draft for my next novel during November. Previously, this would have freaked me out, but now I feel that this is attainable. I managed to nail down the first draft of Rise of the Shadow Wolf in 10 months.
You're probably thinking: that's a lot longer than four weeks!
True, but it's a heck of a lot shorter than the three years it took me to write Mammon.
The thing is, I've learned that if you self-flagellate over every word, you will never get anything written. It's best to just vomit up what you have to say on to the page. That's right, vomit. Just chuck it up because otherwise, it will remain a bilious lump in your gut - or worse, stuck in your throat - and fester there until you go mad. Of course, what you see on the page may well be crap. But we can work with crap. We can't work with a blank page. So my advice to all the would-be NanoWrimo authors out there is: just get the story down on the page and worry afterwards about fine-tuning the structure and language. The feeling of accomplishment at getting a first draft done is MAGIC!
Good luck! I'll report back during November with regular NanoWrimo updates!
JB xxx
I too am doing Nanowrimo and you are right. It's all about barfing on the page and getting it done. We're all in this together. See you on the other side.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment! I've replied to you on Google as well and I asked if you were doing NanoWrimo. I do love the collaborative nature of the activity. My students like it too. JB
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