"I have a goal: to write a shitty first draft...“But,” I hear you say, “That makes no sense. Shouldn’t your goal be to write a really excellent fist draft?”...No, that’s actually a problem for me [because], with fiction, you have to get it on the page. Agonizing over sentence structure or whether you already used this adjective two paragraphs ago will prevent you from ever getting to the end. As will blocking issues – was my hero sitting or standing? Did he already put down/pick up his drink? Or even things like the names of secondary characters—if you’re checking back to see what the bartender’s name was the last time your characters were n this night club, you’re not WRITING." Deadline Dames blog post
That sums up why NaNoWriMo is a good thing for me. Besides, even if totally self-imposed, the whole NaNo flurry of activity creates a sense of deadline pressure and motivation that is very inspiring.
It's the hardest discipline in writing: to not have discipline in writing! Because getting that first draft down to The End is KEY. And yet, many of us have that inner perfectionist editor that wants it all perfect now. There has to be a happy medium, and learning to write a crappy first draft is a step in the right direction! IMO anyhow.
And a proposal: Virtual write ins? Blogger pals supporting each other during NaNo?
I'm considering starting a small blog ring to track a group of blog friends in their NaNo efforts this year. If you want to play along, tell me so in the comments. Because for some of us (me, specifically) it's not possible due to location or time constraints to make it to any of the physical write-ins. We can thus have a virtual write in on a blog (with live comments to track how much progress, for example) and perhaps even an honor-system forfeiture to aid motivation?.
If you want to play along, say so. I will start a blog and we can track our progress with daily progress meters like I have on the current blog. We can have virtual write ins, we can have mini contests (prize being bragging rights.) Basically, we can support each others efforts, and not just via geographic region, but here in an online forum that doesn't take anything away from the great NaNo site. The baby blog is here. I've sent out a few invitations to it as well. Let me know if you want to join in!
Also, cool writing tool: Dr. Wicked's Write or Die. Liana Brooks mentions it in her blog post yesterday, and being typically the last to hear about things, I hadn't heard what the NaNoites are all abuzz over. Anyhow, "Write or Die" is a web-based tool where you write in teh box, and depending on your settings, you get varying negative reinforcements for ceasing to write before your word count goal is reached for the session. You can have gentle mode (a pop up warns you after a certain length of time), or normal mode (you hear an unpleasant sound) or kamikaze mode, which will start erasing what you have already written.
If those consequences don't help you train yourself to just write and not think too much, nothing will.
*I'm cheating, not starting a new project. Goddess knows I don't need another dangling story start.
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