Why the Emphasis on Low Quality?

I know the spirit of NaNoWriMo is writing a novel. A major part of that is never going back and deleting. If you hate it, make the font white or strikethrough. Or make it a dream sequence, but don't go back. I saw the Adopt an Angel section and thought it insane that you would never delete a single sentence (still do).

I this may be because a lot of people are struggling with reaching word counts and any word should be kept, but I don't see the point of disliking editing if you are ahead of schedule.

This is my first year in NaNoWriMo and I write a comfortable 2000 words per day for an expected novel of just over 60000 words by the end of the month. When I say I write 2000 words per day, I mean I have 2000 words up to my standard, written, re-written and edited and ready to hand out to people and say, "This is actually pretty good." I iron out all spelling, grammar errors and make structure and syntax worth reading. That's my definition of 'write', not just put down lots of sentences.

So the real question is, what's wrong with editing when you are ahead of schedule and just want to write to a high standard? I wouldn't be proud if I came out with a pile of trash that's very long. If I left all of the mistakes and bad sentences I wrote in, I'd probably be unable to read anything, much less edit it.

Any thoughts? Arguments? Agreements?

I agree. I edit as I go, then ever four chapters go back and do another edit. but then, I hit 15 thousand on day one. I'm writing a novel I've planned for and I want it to be good. Even last year, I edited my book as I wet, and I wasn't ahead. I still have minor errors (comma's) but the structure and story is good.

It isn't about low quality. It isn't even about not editing. It's about editing later (as in not during November!) I can understand editing while you go, but for a lot of people if they start to do that they panic. Sometimes they delete the good stuff. But I think the main reason the emphasis on not editing during November is to prevent thinking "Oh my God, this is total crap! I hate it! What was I thinking?" Then lots of people give up.

I'm on 34k via not going back and nitpicking as I do with all my normal novels. XD I've written some REALLY bad sentences in this novel, but they're staying, at least until NaNo is over and I rewrite the entire thing. I've still got the proof copy of my NaNo 2010 novel, which I got printed with only the typos removed, not any of the bad writing, so I can rewrite it when I'm ready. The aim here is to splurge your story out and then sort it out later. It's not your finished novel - it's the skeleton of your novel, a big mess that you can sort out later. ;) Don't think "MUST EDIT!" - just think, "This can all be sorted out and made pretty later." :D

I'm finding the NaNo way of writing really hard. I used to work as a sub-editor and I find it so difficult not to edit as I go. As I'm only on 7,400 words though I've got to change my ways otherwise I'll never do it. It'll look strange as I've got 28 pages of correct spelling and grammar and all of a sudden it's going to go to pot!

I think that "don't ever edit, just get the draft out!" is mostly for the benefit of people who don't get anywhere because they edit too much. Spending months and years with planning, starting the first chapter, going back and rewriting things because it's not PERFECT yet, writing another chapter or two, getting a new idea that would need a change in chapter one, going back to the start and rewriting and editing and worrying that it's not the best it could be yet. And they never reach the last chapter, because the worrying and editing and revamping bogs them down until they give up.

If that kind of thing is what keeps you from ever finishing a story, the emphasis on "it's a rough first draft, do NOT edit, do not ever edit before you finish the first draft, just write it even if it's crap" can help.

If you can keep ahead of pace it's totally fine. Since I'm posting my story online as I go, of course I'll at least squeeze a little editing in. The problem is getting 50000+ words of perfection the first time is nigh impossible. Moreover, editing that is plot related (as opposed to spelling, grammar, etc.) is not the easiest to do prior to having the rest of your plot written. Odds are you'll make a change only to find out that either a whole chain of changes are needed or that later, when you have more written, the scene you just fixed will need fixing again anyway. So editing as you go isn't bad, but editing stuff you wrote days before is just going to dig you a hole.

The "ban" on editing is really more about those major edits than edits on the fly.

Because for me, when I don't think to much about making it as good as possible I can write faster. Then once November's over, I can take as long as I want to edit and rewrite.

There are a lot of things that you just can't edit until you have a full draft.

Of course you can go through and proofread and fix minor grammatical, typographical and syntactical errors. But that doesn't mean your draft will be ready for its debut.

Even proofed and touched up in minor ways... I still wouldn't consider a scene ready to handover to someone to read until I've done a real editing pass after the whole novel is written. You can really discover a lot about your story when writing a novel and sometimes something you write in the middle will make something you wrote in the beginning incorrect or incomplete. Sometimes something at the end of the story will require you to make some pretty big changes in the middle. Which is why editing as you go can be kind of pointless, you know?

You can perfect your first few chapters as you go, but what happens when they need a massive overhaul after you've finished and changed some things around about your plot and characters?

Some people need the freedom to be able to write complete and utter nonsense. It's the only way they can let go of the pressure to make everything perfect the first time around (which, honestly, isn't possible for 99% of people anyway).

It also means being able to keep in things that may not be relevant to the plot later on. For instance, right now I have about 1500 words of explaining my character and world because it decided to change on me all of a sudden. That won't be going into the final story, but it is helpful to getting a sense of direction. Same with the small scenes from my character's past that play into how he responds to things within the plot. Some people need that ability to change things on the fly (especially the 'by the seat of your pants' group) without worrying about losing word count.

For me, I have a really hard time sitting down to write. The first few sentences of a chapter or scene are always terrible because I have set myself up against an outrageous bar of perfection. I believe that the introduction to new ideas has to radiate awesome and it can be down right paralyzing. I appreciate the sentiment that I can edit those shaky sentences later, after November. Otherwise I sit there, writing and re-writing the first handful of sentences until I give up. Its what has led me to writing screenplays, poetry, even short stories, before touching a novel. Less ideas, less stopping and starting. It's an entirely frustrating process.

For me, this NaNo is about getting out an idea I've carried around for ages. If I hate it after November, I hate it. But unless I assimilate those words, put that story in some sort of order, I will never have anything to polish into gleaming awesomeness.

My problem: I sit down to write, and I have the pen to the paper, and I think "Now, this scene is going to happen, but I just realized that I don't know exactly what this character's motivation is for that part." And I get locked up and writer's block central. Nanowrimo is about telling that inner critic to shut up for a while so you can get the words down. In December, you go through and read it, and if there are inconsistencies like that, you can then iron them out and have all the time you need to think up why someone would do something like that. But in the meantime, Nano is there to motivate you to get it down.

I agree with what some of the other posters have said: it's not a rule so much as it is a piece of advice for the more easily-discouraged among us. It's also not about low quality; it's about high quantity, regardless of quality.

Personally, I almost never restructure a sentence once it's down on the page and is older than half a minute or so. The syntax, punctuation, and spelling is universally either correct the first time or intentionally rule-breaking. Of course, I'll later recognize contextual disjunctions between my sentences, which bear semantic editing. So do weak sentences or sections of my writing which could benefit from additional ideas, new inspiration, or the like. I have been known to return to a story many months later and overhaul it, but if any sentence takes me longer than five seconds to fix, I'm probably not editing it so much as scrapping it and starting over. All of this means that the time that I spend editing is short and front-loaded into my first draft, while the time that I spend properly rewriting is long and heavily weighted towards the end of the process. Hence, my NaNo doesn't suffer from edititis, though it's entirely possible I'll come back to it at the end of December and realize it was generally garbage. Syntactically, lexically perfect garbage.

Most people have different writing styles, though, and one of the most disheartening feelings is that you'll never be able to move on until it's perfect, and it'll never be perfect because you don't know how to make it so. For people who suffer from this particular malady, a refusal to perform initial edits may work wonders. Once you know the whole story, you'll know which words to use, which rules to follow, and which rules to break. Don't sweat it at the outset.

Nothing's wrong with what you're doing. If I did it, though, well...I'd wind up with yet another exposition for a novel sitting in my "Writing Projects" folder, feeling totally fed up with it and all the editing I'd done on it, never getting past character descriptions.

This is the first time I've managed to get into the meat of a novel, and it's because I'm writing without looking back. It's working for me, even if it doesn't necessarily work for everyone.

I find it silly as well. I'm a college kid striving for medical school; I might as well have a 9-5 job. It's not that I have tons of time to do this, I just work hard about 2 hours out of the day, usually after nightfall when I should be sleeping. I edit. Most of my sentences are well-thought out and I even visit thesaurus.com occasionally. GASP! What am I doing?! My novel isn't a complete pile of crap! Oh... that's not a bad thing.

If you absolutely are stressed for time and you're having trouble meeting your daily goals, only then should you adopt a rule so silly as "NO BCKSPC."

I think the great thing about nano is...it's not that hardass. There are many "rebels", and if you're someone that needs to spend more time editing than writing, go for it.

Personally, I haven't been writing prose. In a long time. I stepped away from it to take a stab at screenwriting and got stuck there. Having the freedom to fully remember what it is about prose writing that made me fall in love with it the first place...the twists I didn't expect, the way my characters surprise me time and I again when I forget about editing and perfect sentences and just let them take the wheel and do the talking...that's what excites me about nano, and that's why I actually think writing low quality (or as I put it "my quest to write 50,000 words of crap"), has been a lifesaver to me. But that's just one success story--everyone just needs to write in a way they feel that'll benefit them most, even if that means putting themselves out of their comfort zones. Good luck!

I find that if I think about what I'm writing too hard, it'll stop flowing and then I'll just sit and stare at the white screen for the whole month. Now I've written tons of school papers I always had the same problem with drafts-- couldn't ever get the words out unless I was pressed up against the deadline and desperate. Things should come out perfect the first time, with little tweaking, or not at all. Not a good thing when a paper is due in about six hours because you're too scared that it'll be crap and you had a week's worth of anxiety to work on it. It wasn't that I didn't know what to write, it was how to write it.

NaNoWriMo is the complete opposite of my academic experience. You have a tight deadline but no one is going to grade you on the final product(until you get a chance to edit it properly, that is). It's a release from all the times when you are forced to turn in a paper that you know could do better on because you just ran out of time. Not everybody does the novel-in-a-month thing because they want to be published or read or by their peers (even posthumously!). Sometimes it's just catharsis with a shiny certificate and a purple bar. If there was an official National Paint a Picture a Day Month, I would be doing that. It's just that writing is a little easier to keep track of progress on.

Also it's about writing 50k words. My first nano I did 23k and that was the most I had ever written for one novel in my life. It was a major accmoplishment. I got bored with other novels and would start something new... or the excitment of starting a new idea made me want to start a new one. So I never got too far. When you've never written 23k or let alone 50k you need to give up on the high quality, second or thrid draft novel writing and just write. Finishing a novel my thrid year made me feel GREAT.

And like others have said. I don't have a lot of time for writing. Then editing the same day. But that's me.

Makes sense. Guess writing's just too modular for people to set down general rules.

I edit as I go. I don't like to just write crap, so I end up deleting paragraphs, and rewriting them. I know it needs more editing at the end of the month, but I don't quit for the day if I'm not pleased with what I've written.