Approaching the End

Posted on November 26, 2009 in NaNoWriMo

National Novel Writing Month is nearly over. As of this entry, I have spewed 50081 words into my [[OpenOffice]] Writer. There’s more to be written. I doubt that it is publishable, but it has been a good discipline for bringing me out of sleep at the beginning of the day and back into it at the end.

I’ve proceeded with a few principles in mind:

• Even though this is a first draft, I try to do it right the first time. I accept that I won’t do it right, but at least I will have tried.
• Just churning out words is boring and soul-killing.
• To hell with “Don’t tell, show.” Tell has its place as does show. Mix it up. When you tell, tell it well.
• If you have an inspiration to go back and rewrite a passage and that inspiration is strong, go ahead and do it. My original start sucked. If I had stuck with it, I would have stopped the project. So I went back and rewrote it. The fire I generated carried me through to the end.
• It’s OK to make a mental note to delete and rewrite passages if you don’t then have a clue how to replace them.
• My present plan is to shelve the work for a little while before I go back for the necessary task of rewriting the piece. Maybe the reading will reveal to me that it’s unsalvageable or needs a major overhaul. I don’t think that the passion — or deadness — of the first creation is going to be a trustworthy guide.

I will do this again next year.