No NaNoWriMo this time

Dorlana Vann ♦ November 2, 2012 ♦ Leave a comment

Since I’m in the middle of writing a novel right now, I’m not going to be writing a draft for NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). And even if I didn’t have a work-in-progress, I don’t think I’d write another book the NaNo way.

I participated in my first Nanowrimo back in 2007 — The Princes of Tangleforest. And three more times (2 of these are still incomplete) over the past four years. Not long ago I would have sworn there was no way I’d write a novel any other way. But here I am back to writing the old fashioned way. I’m taking my time to think, I’m allowing myself to go back and add scenes as needed and get to know my characters now and not later when I rewrite the draft.

There is something to say about writing and leaving your inner-editor out of it–one of the recommended techniques for NaNo. But at the same time, I think in doing that, I created these stories that are more like shells of stories where I had to go back through and replot and cut/paste and pretty much rewrite the darn thing.

Seeing as the rough draft of the story is my least favorite part of writing a book, I don’t want to do it twice anymore. I think writing the book the way I’m doing now, my book should be fully plotted, and have fully developed characters by the time I get to “The End”, which really appeals to me.

I’m in no way bashing NaNo, my goodness it was very productive, 2 finished books and 4 rough drafts –err prerough drafts, later. I’m just saying that now, for me, it seems better if take a little more time on the first draft, cleaning up messes as I go, so I won’t have such a huge mess in the end.

Love and Laughter,

Dorlana