Nanowrimo: Day 05

Did some catching up today . . . or is that just less falling behind? My word count is at 5,698. Eh, no worries. I should have no problem catching up tomorrow.

A couple of things I've learned. First, don't put off writing into the evening, because there are way too many distraction. Dinner time, prime time, family time . . . you get the idea.

Second, don't get too focused on quantity versus quality. Sure, the point is to hit a 50k word count by the end of the month, but it does no good if you end up with nothing but gibberish. Then again, you don't want to take forever on what is inevitably going to be one of many drafts with plenty of future revisions. I guess the best course is to take some time to plan what to write and then try to stick to it, while executing it in a timely fashion.

Third, don't censor ideas and edit too much. Now this might seem counter to the last point about not just spewing for the sake of driving up the numbers, but there is actually another good reason. If you can't take a lot of time to sift through the chaff to find the wheat, then mill it into flour, then knead it into dough, then let it rise, and then bake it into a nice loaf of bread . . . then at least make sure you get as much wheat as you can. The idea is not to throw the baby out with the bath water -- just type and keep what you get. Everything. That way, you don't lose any diamonds in the rough which you can better find and polish up later. (Okay, enough with the hackneyed phrases.)

Oh, and fourth, don't forget the writing music. Music that is good for reading, is usually good for writing as well. While I have lots of good musics from various albums I've collected over the years, I decided to treat myself to a new CD for this year's Nanowrimo -- "for Book Lovers" by Decca. Cheesy title, yup. Cheesy cover, affirmative. Good music, most definitely.

Anyhoo, this entry was supposed to be short, but got a bit long-winded. Gee, if only I spent as much time typing my novel as I did my blog posts. Hmmm . . . .