So yesterday I clicked on my blog only to discover that I hadn't posted since Friday. Somehow I had completely forgotten to post on Monday. Not sure how that happened *oops* I hope everyone has been happy, healthy and productive in the meantime :D
Yesterday I also realized that Nano is in 6 days. S.I.X. DAYS. How did that happen? Where did October go?!
I had a pretty lofty goal for October. I was going to finish my current WIP so when Nano hit I could work on a new one. If I could pull it off, it would mean two finished books by the end of the year. I've done pretty well...but my current WIP is nowhere close to being finished.
However, before October 1st, it wasn't even started. I hadn't worked on new material in a very long time so I am proud of the work I've accomplished.
Here's my problem...I can't shut off my internal editor. And it's driving me nuts :)
I know this book has issues. It's complicated. It's partial verse and the genre has morphed from urban fantasy into what I can really only call Sci Fi (maybe light SciFi, but still). It's a genre I haven't written before and it's something that requires research (which I'm more than happy to do) but all of that combines to make that pesky editor in me sit up and scream about every 5 seconds because I know there are sections that need to be rearranged or expanded or researched better or cut or any number of combinations of the above.
The poems in the story also take quite a bit of time as I'm trying to fit the story I need each of these poems to tell into the story as a whole and still stay within the structure and rules of each form.
So...yeah...it's complicated LOL But what I need to do, and what I am trying VERY hard to do, it just to write. Just to get that basic first draft story OUT. And then I can go back and fix what needs fixing.
Anyone have an internal editor muzzle? :D Does your internal editor slow down your first draft writage? And who's doing Nano?! :D I'm getting ready to break out my little potato guy word counter. I love that spud :)
7 comments:
My internal editor doesn't really bother me much during a first draft. It's the subsequent drafts where I can't get her to shut up and let me work. I know where the problems are - she doesn't need to constantly point them out. LOL
I signed up for NaNo, but I decided last night to bow out. I need to focus on this WIP right now and not get distracted by a shiny new idea.
Yes, I silence mine well and truly with N.L.P. And I'm about to set up that spud guy too... give us all strength - mind you, that editor never has a chance with Nano, thank goodness.
I'm having that problem as well. Each time I open my WIP, I go back and edit chapter one so much that I don't get any writing done, so I'm doing Nano this year as well.
I've been thinking about the approaching nano as well...but in regards to the internal editor, trying writing a few short-stories for fun or fan fiction or a children's fable. Anything you won't take to seriously. This can help you get out of the editor mode:)
I have the same problem. The more often I work on something, the less I feel the need to go back and re-read, which inevitably leads to editing.
But when I'm pulled away to revise something else, I usually want to start reading from the beginning, to get back "into" the world and the characters and all the little details I've forgotten.
So I'm gunning to finish my wip in November. 50,000 words to go...
Good luck with yours, Michelle!
To stop my internal editor, if I need to go back over what I have written (usually to remind myself which WIP I'm working on this time), I go somewhere where there are no pens or pencils available for editing. Only when I'm going to actually start writing, do I pick up pen/pencil, therefore leaving all the editing to another time - or the point where I find that there are now so many plot holes, that I have to rewrite the whole WIP so that it makes some logical sense.
My alternate muzzle is to put myself back in my old non-grammatically savvy mindframe. This one usually works, but then re-finding my internal editor is difficult.
I won't be doing NaNo, but I'll be happy to cheer everyone else on.
I've been having a harder time shutting off my internal editor lately. I'm not sure why, but I just want everything to turn out the way I picture it in my head. I know that's unreasonable. Good luck with NaNo! I can't wait for it to start!
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