I'VE MET THE EVIL EDITOR, AND SHE IS ME!

Day ten of NaNoWriMo. Frankly, I'm ecstatic that I have over 13,000 words down on electronic paper. Behind the mark a bit but hey, it's only words right?The day started with the voices in my head taking an oath of silence. Seriously? On day ten?

You know how we hate silence and feel the need to fill it with something. Oh, I know. Editing! Ya know, I really didn't like the way the dialog flowed in scene three. And really, that plot twist should come in Act two or the story will arc to soon. Oh, and I'm telling way more than showing. Where's my red pencil?

Today, not even half way through NaNo, I had the irresistible urge to go back and edit. Change this. Rewrite that. It was all-consuming. Three times today I drafted an email to my writing partners and asked, "are you sure I'm not supposed to edit? Won't that eventually harm my baby?" And, three times I looked at my reflection in my computer monitor, took a deep breath and said, "Reebs, it's NaNoWriMo, not your publisher. Delete the emails and give it a rest."

I've learned so much about me over these last ten days. I'd like to share a few.

1) One, I could easily NOT write any day of the week. It's easy for me to say, "not tonight honey, I have a headache." My word count cowers in the corner, totally rejected.

2) I also learned I'm a much better story teller than story show-er. Why'd they put that in the rules of novel writing anyway?! Oh I know! I could make my hero a story teller! Umm... that would be NO! Oh well, I'll have a lot of fun in rewrites, which brings me to the final thing.

3) I realized that NaNoWriMo is forcing me to keep my story moving forward. I'll finish my "telling"-albeit with intermittent really bad dialog- and have a great working foundation upon which to build a great story.

If you're a fellow WriMo, please step away from the editing. You'll be glad you did!

Remember the words of one of my favorite authors, Terri Blackstock:

Don't get it right. Get it written!

Write on,
Reebs