It's that time of year
again. November. National Novel Writing Month. NaNo is to writers what
Christmas is to kids. Exciting. Long anticipated. Over far too quickly.
At the beginning, thirty days seem like enough time. 1,666 words a day don't
seem so difficult to manage. After all, the writing doesn't have to be at
Shakespearean levels of greatness. Basically, we only need to put words on
paper. Fifty thousand of them, not even the length of a standard novel. It's
the first half of a first draft. In my case, a very rough first draft. No
editing allowed, at least for me, otherwise I won't make it to fifty thousand.
Which is exactly what I need right now. I've gotten into this habit of editing
while writing, which kills the famous Flow. Something to do with left-brain vs.
right-brain activity: one side is active when being creative and actually
writing down your story, the other is active while editing. Try doing both at
the same time, and your brain-halves get deadlocked, creating the infamous
Writer's Block.
Obviously, I'm no brain-brainiac, but that's the gist of it. So I'm planning on
using this year's NaNo to break this obstructive, perfectionistic habit of mine
and just write. It's a great incentive, because I only have a couple of hours a
day to write, max, and if I start editing during that time I won't manage even
the 1,666 words per day.
So from tomorrow on, that's my mission: A month of all writing, no editing.
All fun, no brakes.
See you on the other side and may the Words be with you.
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