NaNoWriMo!!!
Yup, it's that time of year again!
Usually, I observe it in some fashion or another. I'm glad to see it's here. This year, however, I may just work on a piece in time with it (still outlining).
Rules state 50k word minimum. I'm aiming for 30k, just to keep the stress down with Kenneth on the way. Plus, 4 pages a day allows for catch up -- and gives me time to get the Yule and Christmas gifts made, surf the markets, get my other projects in and, maybe, do a little marketing (depending on which projects are picked up when).
Just have three rules to live by:
1) Doesn't have to be pretty or perfect, it just has to be written.
2) All first drafts suck! (albeit, some more than others)
3) Let the story lead you, not you leading the story. (It's an adventure! Enjoy the little trip down the rabbit hole.)
Anything else . . . that's what we have revision for. ;)
Write first, read later. I do that piece by piece -- some pieces larger than others. If anything, it helps keep the original goal in mind -- the true heart of the story. Things can change quickly. But, is it really for the best?
This month, I'll be foregoing that for marginalia.
Have done so in my earlier works . . . and helps when the story moves too fast to pause. Hoping this goes the same way. Only with a better outcome. LOL!
Earlier works are always kept in my slosh pile, an oubliette of bad writing. But, from time to time, I go back and reread (usually with my fingers over my eyes) a bit of the old days. For three reasons: 1) somewhere in those pieces, are sparks, seeds for other stories; 2) to remind myself, in times of 'am I writing badly or just being too hard on myself' that I don't suck that much; 3) to get myself thinking outside the box.
Other than that, the crap in the pile is kept solely because it's stuff I've written -- and to collect dust.
Some things, unlike fine whiskey, never get better with age.
Well, here's to NaNoWriMo!! May it forever be a challenge and a reminder of what so many of us do!
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