NaNoWriMoIsNoHeMySoAss

For those who don't NaNo I will translate: National Novel Writing Month is not helping my sorry ass.

That's because I am on my third draft. The third draft is the End of the Honeymoon. The Maybe I Love You and Maybe I Do Not phase.

At least I wrote the first draft in grand NaNo style. Actually, it wasn't NaNo. It was the Stephen King method: Cut out distractions, hunker down, write 10 pages a day until the first draft is done. In that way I was able to write the first draft in five weeks.

So at the end of a month I had a bunch of words, all right. Some good words, lovely, exciting words. And some of the most inane drivel anyone has ever wasted space saving on their desktop. But the main thing is: The story had taken its shape. The characters and the story were in the world.

And that is the idea behind both the SKM (spelled out in his book On Writing) and NaNoWriMo: Get the thing out of your brain and into the world. Then you can always go back, later, with fresh ideas, and torment yourself through a third draft.

Happy writing.