Hi, NWO NaNos!
Sorry I missed the get together on Tuesday. I came down with a cold and thought it best not to pass it along to everyone. I hope the evening was fun and inspiring!
Just a reminder that the next NaNo Port of Call is scheduled for Friday the 16th (just past the NaNo half-way point!!!)...any time after 7 at the Barnes and Noble at Fallen Timbers.
I'm making good progress on my NaNo project and just as an FYI, I'm only updating my word count once a week. I HAVE written since that number was plugged in but I won't update my word count again till Sunday. I know there are parts that ramble mercilessly and that this draft is quite unfocused, but I think of it as starting a 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle. I've opened the box and have dumped all the pieces onto the table....then I will sort them by color...then I will find all the outside pieces to build the framework....then I'll start putting the pieces in place. Sometimes I have to look at the box lid to remember what the big picture is like...what it's supposed to look like at the end. And sometimes my cat comes along and tries to "help" by using some of the pieces as hockey pucks, but I'll deal with that later.
In a nutshell....really REALLY resist the urge to edit as you go. You run the risk of getting stuck in that doldrum known as "perfection," spending so much time on choosing just the right words you wind up falling behind.
Professionally, most of my writing has been for the ear, not the eye, so brevity and selective word choice has been a way of life for me for many years. I still have an internal editor who keeps whispering that a sentence is too long or I've used a $5 word where a 50 cent word will do. But editing and brevity is certainly not what this journey is all about!
A plug for the NorthWest Ohio Writers' Forum: the group is meeting Saturday, November 17 from 10am to Noon at the Washington Branch Library on Harvest Lane in Toledo. More info is available at www.nwowf.com. Members of the Forum will be reading aloud from works-in-progress, but the meeting is open to the public. So stop by if you're seeking additional inspiration! :-)
Steady as she goes, mates!
Your Captain
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Liz
NaNo 2005: Broken Branches (51K and then some)
NaNo 2006: The Fool (yes...I was....3,500 or thereabouts)
NaNo 2007: Loved Anyway
"I've been to the ends of the earth, and I know what standing still is worth." -- Darden Smith, "Perfect Moment
53,644 / 50,000
Nov 8, 2007 - 11 19
Other useful tidbits that internal editors may spasm at:
numbers: never '200 feet', always 'two hundred feet' use words instead of digits
'range one thousand three hundred seventy five point two two four meters', not 'range 1,7375.224 meters'
Bit characters don't need names now.
Repeated used of 'the leader of the thugs' might make your inner editor squirm, but if you start calling him 'Charlie' , you trade five words for one.
57,158 / 50,000
Nov 8, 2007 - 13 39
Yeah, that works and lo and behold you have 60k words when you finish -- then you edit and you're down to a mere 35k THEN you have to really write. Me? I prefer Charlie vs 'the leader of the pack' only because I hate losing words that quickly and THAT many! Contractions can kill you too but I intersperse -- sometimes I use them, sometimes I don't, so the ratio is not that bad when I convert afterwards.
Want to up your count? Quote! Quote! Quote! Copy and paste quotes all over the place.