I once heard of a writer (Dick Francis? Frederick Forsyth? Don't remember) who composes the entire novel he's working on in his head until it is word perfect. The actual process of transferring the words onto paper is just a chore that has to be endured.
This is not me. As someone who (with very limited experience) tends to write their way into characters and the story, I'm finding the temptation to go back and play around with what I've written so far is soooooo strong. I'm just about holding out, but am under no illusion that it'll last.
Do you plan? Do you wing it? And how do you resist the urge to edit?
5 comments:
You poor thing. If I recall last NaNo I got to 35k words and then had to break the rules and read back over what I'd written. I felt I was going off on a tangent and was gonna waste precious time, of which I have little.
Generally when writing though, I don't do any major editing until the end. I do however have a loose idea of where my story and characters are going!
:)
Rach!
35k words?! Would love to get that far!
Am currently thinking that one way around it would be to finish the story at about 10,000 words. Then I could write THE END and have the perfect excuse to edit ;)
Is that cheating???
Well, I've already broken the rules because I have to look back to see what I have written in order to move forward. I have been good and haven't edited anything, but still. Yikes!
The Neo is really helping me with my urge to edit. As long as I don't print the pages out, there won't be any editing.
Off to write more today. I am already waaaaaay behind.
Barbara
Barbara - am behind too, but the Neo is helping.
Rach - did your 35k words turn into a finished book?
I did actually finish the novel during last year's NaNo! It's had mixed feedback in contests but I do so love the hero and heroine. Think it needs a lot of work to be shaped into an actual M&B line and it's too short to find a home elsewhere, but I hope to get back to it one day!!
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