Day 3: and today’s cheerleading comment in the calendar
Sack your inner editor today
- Target for the day, get to 5000 words
- Current word count 2219 words
So, on the plus side after the Goldfrapp incident, I have been able to catch up a little. Unfortunately, nowhere near enough as I am still over a thousand words behind, as I didn’t hit the daily total again. Partly this was down to a rush job at work causing me to stay behind an extra couple of hours, but mainly it was down to something else entirely. Ironically, given what the calendar told me this morning, this was because I did not ‘sack my inner editor‘ and what should have been a quick read over of what I wrote on day 1 turned into a long editing session while I tried to make it make sense…
This is not to say day 1’s output did not make sense in the first place, just that I got myself lost in editing mode. I should know better… So the advice of the day is apt if nothing else.
In my pitiful defence, I have been in editing mode for a couple of months with ‘A Spider in The Eye...’ and forcing myself into first draft mode is proving difficult. First drafts are a different skill set and a wild indulgent ride when it works well, akin to throwing your sails to the wind and letting the current and the salty air take you where they will. First drafts are uncharted territories, and if you start taking soundings you may avoid the rocks but it doesn’t half slow the progress…
So at this point, I think we need to take solace in the words of Ben Arment’s pointed response to Hemmingway’s… “The first draft of everything is shit…’”
Stop editing yourself into the ground and write… As I need to tell myself when I sit down to get some words on the page today. Don’t worry about the quality, that’s what editing is for… Or as Nanowrimo like to call it, December…
As ever good luck to all of those on this journey, and keep those sails to the wind…
Adios for now.
Mark
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The Passing Place 
Editing into the ground is always my biggest pitfall!
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me too, it was one of the reasons I started doing Nanowrimo in the first place, I did a rather long post on the subject early last month, which is what lead to me ‘live’ blogging nanowrimo this year . Link below if its of interest… https://markhayesblog.com/2017/10/06/nanowrimo-or-how-to-first-draft/
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That’s exactly the approach I’ve taken this year. It’s so hard to stop myself from editing as I go, but gosh do the words ever flow more easily!
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