Category Archives: NaNoWriMo

Revised revision

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I’ve learned that one of the rules of writing is to Finish What You Start.

That’s a terrible rule. For me. I’m great at starting things, not so great at finishing. I’ve been working hard to overcome that particular failing of mine.

But there is this little voice in me that says, Oh, but your story will be so much better if you change it.

BACK! BACK, DEMON!

animetowen-concept

I originally started my current project as a Personal Novel Writing Month one hot July. I had great fun with it, but then I made a mistake. I decided it was good enough to try for publishing when I finished it. So, two-thirds through the project, I scrapped it and started over. The Great Rewrite.

Now, two years and a two-year-old later, I’m stuck on the project again. Stuck hard. I know where the story should go, but I can’t seem to get it there. In comes that little voice . . .

Just a small change. Try switching POVs.

headdesk

I’ve gone and done it – I’m going through the manuscript line by line changing from 1st person to 3rd limited. I’m hopeful, because it seems to be working. I’m enjoying myself again . . . but I need all the luck and encouragement I can get to keep pushing through to the end. I have decided not to bother my critique group with “Blue Tiger” again until it’s finished. Let’s hope I can last that long!

No school like the old-school

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I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m a writer. Most of you are probably going, “Well, duh. You’re a member of a writer’s group. Use your head, man.”

While I do sometimes have conflicting feelings on whether I really should call myself a writer or not, that isn’t what I’m really talking about. I have recently discovered that I need to write in the most traditional sense of the meaning: I need to put pen to paper. It may have something to do with the fact that I’m a lousy typist but the words don’t flow through the keys like they do through the pen. There is a bit of a disconnect between me and the words when I write on the computer.

I have done the National Novel Writing Month (aka NaNoWriMo) 30-day novel writing challenge for the last three years and have written the novels out long hand each time. I go back and type it into the computer at a later date. Why do twice the work you may ask? First off, when I started I didn’t have laptop so in order to go to write-ins (which I highly recommend to all budding Nanos) I needed to write in a notebook. I soon found out, however, that typing what I wrote into a desk-top the same night was not a good idea so I just filled up my notebooks, counted each and every word, and then created a file with that word count to submit for the challenge to confirm I reached fifty-thousand words.

But wait, isn’t that cheating? No, not if someone confirms your word count. If you’re just going to put it on the computer anyway why not do it that night? Great question. And the answer is, I edit as I put it into the computer. In Nano you need to shut your inner-editor off as much as you can.  

Writing the old fashion way has a two-fold purpose for me. It gets the creative juices flowing better and it leads into the first step in the editing process. Maybe I’m not as crazy as you all think. Okay, I did say maybe.

So until they create a device that lets me transmit my thoughts directly onto the page, pen and paper are my go-to medium. I’m a writer so I need to write, right?