Am I Writing Drivel Or Is This Just The NaNo Way?

If you have not been following my blogs of late, you should first go here and learn all about NaNoWriMo.

Today was a very productive day and I feel a bit better about getting back where I should be with my word count.  However, I am even more not liking this speedy style of writing. Maybe it is the control freak in me, but I like re-reading and revising as I go along. It just seems more the right way to do it and end up with something that might be reasonable. Since I have just been speed writing -brain to finger -  no inner critic or editor engaged at all (I tied that part of my brain up in the back shed!!) ... I have this fear that I am writing utter nonsesnse and that it will just be a big waste of time in the end because I will toss the lot. Maybe it is just that habits die hard or maybe I am writing a pile of bum wipe! :( Time will tell!!


However, I will stick with it if only so that at the end I have given it a true test. Besides, I read my pep talk letter which came today from Gail Carson who amongst all the other gems of wisdom in her letter says:

Now, seriously, not fictionalized, with all the earnestness I can command, here is the only important piece of advice, which is crucial for any speed of writing, any kind of writing: Do not beat up on yourself. Do not criticize your writing as lousy, inadequate, stupid, or any of the evil epithets that you are used to heaping on yourself. Such self-bashing is never useful. If you indulge in it, your writing doesn’t stand a chance. So when your mind turns on you, turn it back, stamp it down, shut it up, and keep writing.

Gail Carson Levine's first book for children, Ella Enchanted, was a 1998 Newbery Honor book. You can learn more about her writing at http://gailcarsonlevine.blogspot.com/

I must say those pep talk letters which seem to arrive every other day are wonderfully helpful for keeping up morale!

  I happened to look at one of my new fav bloggists Adventures in Navy Wifing who today wrote as her blog topic "Writing Fast and Well".    She writes a blog I always try and sneak a peak at because she often has great tidbits - funny bits, eye candy and novel writing advice alike.

I happened upon this bloggist as she was featured on the NaNoWriMo.org site as someone who did her first NaNoWriMo last year and has published several novels since then.  (Actually this woman seems an incredible word machine - and pretty funny as well.)


Now back at it for me! - I need to break the 15K barrier tonight and I have another 600 words to go!