Rewriting (and Why You Shouldn't Fear It)

Friday night, I successfully finished the first draft of a certain novel I've been working on for a couple years now. (Cue excuse for not blogging on time...whoopsie.) This is the first first draft that I've finished in quite some time--the last time I finished the rough copy of a manuscript was probably the 8th grade. (Which was abandoned before the revising and editing process even truly began.)

The problem I had for the longest time (and still struggle with now, sometimes), is that I thought the revising process was something to be feared. I always shuddered when my English teacher would announce a mandatory major revision in our written work; You mean I actually have to rewrite something?! But I put so much thought into these words!

And I did--too much work, actually. I second-guessed every sentence, double checked every word as I was writing it. I formed the next sentence in my mind before even considering writing it down. I would spend so much time working on this so-called "first draft", stopping every few paragraphs to go back and change something, that I would eventually get so sick of working on it that I would consider it "bad" and move on to something else. Each new project was just as doomed as the first.

I lived at the mercy of my inner editor. I just didn't know what, exactly, that was yet.

The first year I discovered NaNoWriMo, I struggled. A lot. So much so that I didn't make it far past the 14k mark. How am I supposed to keep writing this?! I'd think. I need to go back and change everything before I can continue!

While I managed to get the hang of the whole write-first-think-later mindset the following year, I still struggled to keep the act up after November was over. It's not November anymore! I'd think. I don't have to write so recklessly! It's why my manuscript, only half finished at the end of NaNoWriMo 2012, was left collecting dust until the following year.

Writing recklessly, I realize now, is the only true way to write a first draft.

It wasn't until about January (or maybe even February, if I'm being totally honest) that I finally gathered up the nerve to tackle the still-unfinished manuscript, stuck in the eternal first-draft limbo that all too many of my projects endure. (Even after two NaNoWriMos--two!) It took a lot to gather the courage to write without looking back, long after November had come and gone; it took a lot of word sprints, a lot of forcing myself to sit at my desk, and a lot of running away from my family to get it done.

For a long time, I thought that the editing / revising process was restricted solely to grammar and sentence structure; that rewriting large chunks--and in some cases, the entire story--would make the whole writing process far too long. I was scared that if I couldn't write it well the first time, how would the second time be any different?

Now, I realize my mistakes, and I think I've finally gotten into the habit of writing NaNoWriMo-style all year round. It's still hard to squander that inner editor of mine, but at least now, it's possible; and I have a finished draft to prove it.


Fellow writers! What's your most feared part of the writing process?

Until later,

- Justyne

In which I discover the SECRET to NaNoWriMo (NaNoWriMo, Week 3)

Up until this past week, my daily word count has been pitiful, if not non-existent. 100 words here, 200 words there, 0 words over there. I was quite ashamed of myself, to be honest. I wrote over 13k on the last day of NaNoWriMo to win last year, and now I can't even manage a measly thousand words a day? Pitiful.

And then, I discovered something. The very well-kept secret to succeeding in NaNoWriMo.

Word sprints.

Okay, so it's not really a secret. And I'm not sure what I've been doing technically follows the definition of a "word sprint", but still.

For you non-wrimos, a "word sprint" is a short period of time--fifteen minutes, thirty minutes, etc etc--in which you just sit down and write. Nonstop. You put your fingers to the keyboard and type as fast as you humanly can to get as many words as possible in the time provided.

I've participated in one word sprint this past week (in which I got 1,027 words in 30 minutes--not too shabby), but most of my extremely productive writing was done, not in sprints dictated by time, but by numbers.

What a concept.

Turns out, if I actually make myself sit down and write in quick intervals of 100 or 200 or 500 words, I get it done rather quickly, and by the end of the day I have over 2k words done, as has been the case for the last few days.

The question now is....why didn't I figure this out on November 1st?!


Until later,

- Justyne